Aftermath and Revelations
by Ragnarok666
Summary: Post Wings of Liberty.  As Kerrigan struggles to find redemption for her past transgressions, the rest of our heroes sought answers to the new threat looming over the horizon.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the Starcraft series

**Author's Note: Before we begin, I'd like to point out that while Wings of Liberty's storyline was reasonably good, I always disliked the fact there was too little development between Raynor and Kerrigan's relationship. That and the fact that I seriously doubt while Heart of the Swarm will take place after Wings of Liberty, I doubt it will take place only a few hours after Wings of Liberty ended, so as of right now it is my intention to make the connection between when Wings of Liberty ended when Heart of the Swarm begins.**

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Chapter 1

**Char**

Jim surveyed the battlefield around him as he walked back to Warfield's forward base. Almost 12 hours had passed since the activation of the Xel'Naga artifact, 12 hours after almost all the men under his command had gone up against one of the largest Zerg assaults in history.

Everywhere he saw, the ground was literally covered with decaying Zerg corpses, many of them still carrying the burns from the artifact's energy nova. To be honest, there had been many times during the final battle where he had been almost afraid to use it. Despite all of information provided by Valerian's Möebius Foundation, there was still no assurance that the Xel'Naga artifact would really return Kerrigan to her human form. In fact, after seeing just a premature energy nova the artifact released that killed thousands of Zerg with a single blow, Jim had been greatly worried that a fully charged blast would be fatal even to Sarah. Still, upon finding her returned to her human form upon entered the hive, he had been greatly relieved.

Or at least, mostly returned to her human form. Her hair remained the bony, dreadlocked aberration she had as the Queen of Blades, and Jim wondered if this meant the artifact didn't work the way it was supposed to. From everything he learned from Dr. Ariel Hanson while on the Hyperion, Stetmann believed that once the current mutated hair is removed, her natural fiery red hair will begin growing again. He is already preparing her for surgery on that, and after he had confirmed that she was in a reasonably healthy condition, Jim had no objections to the operation.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder what kind of an effect this had on her mind. For the last 4 years, despite he had always believed the real Sarah was still alive in the Queen of Blades, he always wondered what the Queen of Blades really was. Was she a Zerg monster with Kerrigan's face while the real Sarah was imprisoned in her own mind? Or had she been Sarah all along these years?

Most of his crew did not really care what the answer was, only that she had to be stopped no matter the cost. Jim agreed with that, but despite he had sworn to kill Sarah after Fenix's death, a part of him just couldn't let her go, probably because he always believed there was a way to kill the Queen of Blades without killing Sarah as well.

As such, during the final battle he was surprised, but also relieved to hear Sarah's voice calling out to him, calling out to him to keep fighting to matter the cost. If Dr. Hanson was right about the artifact and it really did absorb Zerg energy, then it was entirely possible that the closer the Queen of Blades got to it, the more her control over Sarah had weakened. Thus when the Xel'Naga artifact was nearing maximum power, she had briefly lost control over Sarah's mind, allowing her to call out to him.

Whatever the case is, it made no difference now. The Zerg swarm on Char is now scattered, and the fighting has mostly died down. After so much fighting since the invasion began, Jim was almost unaccustomed to hearing the silence. If it had been any other situation, he would be returning to the Cantina on the Hyperion for a long period of drinking and relaxation. However, after Valerian's offer to help restore Kerrigan, all he wanted was to go back to the Hyperion's lab to check up on her, and to be there for her when she wakes up.

There is still a long road ahead of them. The warning from Zeratul about the Dark Voice and impending armageddon was not to be taken lightly. If Sarah really is the key to preventing all this, then Jim knew he would do all in his power to protect her, as he knew once the news about the Queen of Blades's defeat on Char spreads across the Korpulu sector, there will be billions of people demanding Kerrigan's head for everything she's done. But whatever the path will be for them, he knows that they will face it together, the way it always should have been.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Warfield's Forward Base, Char**

When Raynor reached Warfield's forward base, he saw that the general was speaking to Valerian on the communicator. Most of the marines, marauders, firebats, and reapers were boarding the dropships, while others were being carried aboard by the medics, too badly wounded to move under their own steam.

Despite the fact of being his arch enemy's son, Jim did feel Valerian was somewhat different compared to Mengsk. He did seem more about helping others and less about personal gain. And unlike Mengsk, he had straightforwardly admitted to Jim he wanted to be a better emperor than his father. On the other hand, Mengsk did not reveal his plans for personal gain until after Tarsonis, though at that time Jim was still mourning over Kerrigan's death, not realizing the Zerg planned to have her transformed into the Queen of Blades.

Nevertheless, he had no intention of trusting Valerian just yet. Yes he has so far held up his end of the bargain, but to Jim, this is nothing more than a matter of waiting for the right timing. Perhaps the young prince did have ulterior motives still, but as of right now simply could not afford to reveal them to Raynor, nor can he afford to turn against him just yet. A part of Jim felt he was just being completely paranoid, but after the treachery Mengsk pulled on him on Tarsonis, he did not believe in trust so easily anymore. Nevertheless, Kerrigan's attack throughout the sector forced him to realize that in times of desperation, unusual alliances were required for survival.

Even so, if Valerian really is just like his father, he wanted to know about it as soon as possible. Normally this could be done simply by a telepathic ghost, but he had seen cases where such telepathy isn't always successful. Certain people, Mengsk among them, had the ability to conceal their thoughts from telepaths. Similarly however, Jim was not ready to crack the prince's skull open just to find out his thoughts. Fortunately for him, the ability of thought concealing depended on the psionic strength of the ghost, and he already had one who far exceeded that in just about every other ghost in both his Raiders and in the Dominion.

Warfield saw Jim approaching and waved to him, and Jim approached slowly. Despite the relief of finally getting Kerrigan back after 4 years, it did not ease the pain in which he had to kill Tychus to save her life. Before being taken by the Zerg, he had known Sarah for only a matter of weeks. On the other hand, he and Tychus first met when he was only in his teens and therefore had been with each other for more than a decade before Tychus was thrown into New Folsom prison. It was a great relief to see him again after 9 years, but the fact that he had made a deal with Mengsk to become the emperor's assassin was a clear indication that Tychus was a changed man. True he did still value his friendship with Jim, but during the weeks he had fought beside him he had continuously tried to get him to change his mind about Sarah. Not that the rest of his crew didn't, but Tychus pressed the most out of all of them, insisting that there is she is a total monster now and there is no good in her anymore.

Even after Jim had discovered that Kerrigan was essential to preventing the apocalypse from Zeratul's ihan crystal, Tychus still refused to believe she should be allowed to live. This of course wasn't completely unreasonable, and most of his crew were of the same opinion. Despite the Xel'Naga prophecy about impending doom and the Overmind's plan to thwart this by infesting Sarah, there had been absolutely no indication that her actions since becoming the Queen of Blades has done anything for anyone's benefit. On the contrary, most of his Raiders, and virtually all of the Dominion personnel who Jim had told about the prophecy, felt it should have made much more sense that she would be the one to destroy the universe instead, as that has been exactly what she had been doing all along.

This was something even Jim did not fully understand either. Besides, according to the ihan crystal, during Zeratul's encounter with Sarah on Ulaan it had clearly shown that the Queen of Blades already felt there was no hope for the universe anyway, and was ready to accept her fate, while disappointed that Zeratul refused to accept it himself. But if the she was right and the universe was doomed anyway, what was the point of the Second Great War in the first place? Jim knew Kerrigan had been scouring world after world for the Xel'Naga artifact fragments, and she told him during their encounter on Tyrador VIII she knew what the artifacts really were. Dr. Narud had explained that she feared their power, but it seemed strange that she would care about hording artifacts if she was going to be killed later on by the impending doom.

Unless, of course, the Xel'Naga artifact too had a role in this prophecy….

Jim pushed those thoughts aside for now as he greeted Warfield. Initially he disliked the general for his cocky and arrogant attitude in thinking he was the military genius while Jim was just some lucky drunken moron. However as the invasion went on Warfield had grown to respect him, and even admitted that he was wrong to believe in Mengsk's media and propaganda about him. Warfield admitted that he was horrified to hear of Mengsk using the Zerg to kill the Confederacy just so he could achieve his status as emperor of the Dominion, and ever since that broadcast was made he had become very reluctant to listen to him anymore. After praising Raynor for his accomplishments during the Char invasion after he had foolishly believed he could succeed with a mere frontal assault, it was clear to Jim now that they had accomplished what they came here to accomplish, Warfield would feel very uncomfortable about returning to a corrupt Dominion and be subject to the rule of a madman.

"I heard about what happened to Tychus," Warfield said softly. "I'm sorry. I know he was a close friend of yours."

Jim nodded. "It was another one of Mengsk's stunts of control. Either Tychus killed Kerrigan or the suit he was stuck in would have killed him. That makes him the 2nd person I've been close to who had been either controlled or manipulated by your so-called great emperor."

"Now do you understand, general?" Valerian asked from the communicator screen. "My father is not the noble ruler he has tried to convince the public to be for the last 4 and a half years. He wants the entire sector under his rule, and all who oppose them are either enslaved by him, or simply executed. Commander Jim Raynor is an honorable man who has always wanted freedom to be restored to humanity. This was something he had tried to do during the Confederacy's rule, and is still doing now due to the corruption in the Dominion, as well as the threat of the Zerg."

"And yourself, Junior?" Jim folded his arms. "You going to topple Mengsk's throne now that you got what you wanted?"

"It is certainly on the cards, Jim. However unlike my father, I am not the type who takes glory that isn't mine. I may have provided much of the Dominion fleet for the invasion, but it was you who outsmarted the Queen of Blades and got us a clear path to the primary hive cluster in the first place. You deserve most of the credit for our victory this day, not me."

"All right, I'll bite. How exactly you plan to get the rest of the people in the sector to know that?"

"Did you honestly think an event of this scale I wouldn't make public? There may not be any reporters or media personnel with me, but I made sure that all of the Dominion ships had recorded everything that happened once the troops had hit the ground via orbital scans and recordings. The invasion initially went terribly, and it was you who had rallied the survivors and gained a foothold on Char. As I speak the recordings are being broadcasted to the Koprulu public. Every world in the Dominion will soon be getting the news of what you had accomplished here on Char."

"Would they really even pay attention? After the broadcast on Korhal, world after world have gone into open revolt against your father. They'd be more busy doing that right now."

"That's only partially right, commander. The fringe worlds have already been disgusted with the way my father ruled, and abandoned them to the Zerg upon invasion. After your broadcast, they have begun declaring independence from the Dominion, while other worlds who were once loyal to the Dominion are now outraged and demand new leadership. The only reason why my father is still in control of the remaining Dominion worlds is because the Zerg invasion is the greater threat."

Jim nodded. After the broadcast even he told Matt that Mengsk had to be put on hold for the time being because their victory over him will mean nothing if the Zerg kill everyone. "What are you getting at?"

"Tell me Jim: ever since the Zerg invasion began, how much did you exactly see my father do about it?"

"Very little. I do believe Warfield in leading the different attacks against the swarm, but I did not exactly see any news about the Zerg being driven back or anything. The media network comprises of people who are barely more than mindless drones that support your father, so therefore every victory won against the Zerg they would have announced right away. Since I didn't see any, I can only assume that means the attempts to stop the Zerg proved unsuccessful. Besides, Mengsk saw the fringe worlds as expendable and only tried to protect the core worlds. It didn't surprise me that they welcomed my assistance when I showed up to help them."

"My point exactly. By now, most of the core worlds would be at the point of only trusting my father in the event the Zerg invasion ever reached their world."

"The invasion was never about conquest to begin with, Junior. Kerrigan wanted the Xel'Naga artifact fragments your Möebius Foundation located, though I admit she certainly could have changed the role to conquest if she _had_ gotten the artifact."

"Well if that happened, do you honestly think the core worlds could have withstood such an assault?"

"Of course not! Look what the Zerg did to the Confederacy on Tarsonis all those years ago!"

"Then there you go. Had the invasion reached those worlds, they would have turned to anyone who could protect them. The broadcasts that are being sent now will prove to those people that you had saved them by stopping the Zerg. That my father did nothing to take the fight to them is clear proof to the people that their emperor does not care about anything but personal power, and when the going gets too rough, is only interested in saving his own neck."

"I'm surprised by this of you. You told me during our mission to get the last artifact fragment that you wanted to be a better emperor. Seems like you're giving me all the glory and none of it is going to you."

"You're a leader, Mr. Raynor. You had been _long_ before you commanded your Raiders. Nevertheless, you're still a soldier at heart, and soldiers are what people look upon during times of war. During times of peace however, a different type of leader is needed. I wasn't lying to you when I said I wanted to be a better man compared to my father. But just like him, I am no military genius in the art of war. That credit goes to the Dominion military leaders. If they cannot deliver, it is my duty to find someone who can."

"Even so my leadership still took quite a heavy toll on the fleet. What's the situation on that?"

"Not good," Warfield replied, guilty at his own insistence that the Zerg would crack in a frontal assault. "The fleet strength is down to only 41 percent. The initial attacks destroyed many of our BattleCruisers and many of those that were able to drop off their cargo were overwhelmed by the Zerg forces before they had a chance to do anything. Our ammunition reserves are at 23 percent and we will not able to withstand another concentrated Zerg assault."

"We probably won't have to," Jim pointed out. "Ever since the Xel'Naga artifact neutralized the Queen of Blades, the fighting had begun to die down. The Zerg units are easily replaceable, the Queen of Blades is not. So even if they could replace their losses in a few minutes, there's no one left to give them orders anymore, at least not now."

"Then I'm glad the evacuation is just about done," Warfield said, looking at the dropships still taking off nearby. "The sooner we're off this rock the better."

"Same here, General. We've accomplished everything we came here to do. The invasion's been stopped, and Sarah's been de-infested. Despite all the losses to reach this point, it's truly one of the best victories I've seen."

"You don't have to worry about any of my boys trying to take their revenge on her, Raynor. I've given strict orders to everyone in the fleet that the former Queen of Blades is not to be harmed."

"You said the prophecy I told you about is nothing but a load of crap, General. Why the sudden change of heart?"

"I still don't believe the prophecy. But after everything I've seen you do, it's clear you're the expert around here, and I trust your judgment. Besides, you said this is the fate of the entire universe we're talking here. That is too much to be decided over mere gut instinct and the desire for revenge."

"I appreciate that," Jim said, before turning again to the communicator screen. "Well Junior, I guess we're done here. I'll be handing the artifact over to you and your Möebius boys for further studying."

"Actually Jim, it was my intention for you to hold on to it after Char." Valerian explained.

Jim frowned. "The artifact already did what I needed it to do, I have no further reason to keep it."

"Jim, did you forget who you fought to get the 1st fragment in the first place? It wasn't the Zerg, nor was it the Tal'darim Protoss. You were fighting the Dominion, who had been excavating on Mar Sara for that artifact."

Jim suddenly understood what the prince was getting at: Mengsk desired the Xel'Naga artifact as well.

As if able to read his thoughts, Valerian continued, "I'm sure it doesn't come as a surprise that my father wanted the relic also. While I did say when fully assembled the artifact would reverse Kerrigan's infestation, you knew all along everything my Möebius associates told you about it were just theories. No one knew what it would do in practice, even when it was deployed and ready for use at the primary hive cluster.

"You saw what it did with your own eyes, Jim. A single fully charged blast from it did more than just subdue the Queen of Blades, it also killed every single Zerg at the base of the hive cluster. What do you think could happen if my father got his hands on it?"

Jim sighed. Valerian had a point, Mengsk has proven to be power hungry enough as it is. The Castanar installation was clear proof of that. That Mengsk would try to create his own army of hybrids disgusted him, but at least the lab had been trashed, and his Raiders had made off with yet another prize: the schematics of the A.R.E.S. warbots for future production, as well as captured special hand grenades, plasma rounds, and a chrono-rift device, all for the benefit of Swann and Stetmann to study and replicate.

"Basically you're saying it's just too much power for one man to wield?"

"You may have fought against some Protoss, but I also know you're friends with others. Since they are creations of the Xel'Naga themselves, it would not surprise me if they had a better understand of this artifact. Besides, it'd certainly make my father's job harder in yet another grab for power."

Jim nodded. "Very well, prince. I'll hold on to the artifact, but under one condition: you dissemble it back down to the 5 fragments they were originally found in. From what I learned while I've held the pieces on my ship, this artifact is capable of killing Protoss as well, and I don't want some of my allies becoming a casualty in that."

Valerian nodded. "I'll take care of it, Mr. Raynor. "

"You're just going to hand the thing to him?" Warfield folded his arms. "I honestly expected you to claim a share to some of the pieces."

"Commander Raynor has friends among the Protoss, I do not. Therefore, he has a much better chance to understand what this Xel'Naga device is really supposed be and what it's supposed to do." Valerian turned his eyes back to Jim. "Besides Jim, after what the artifact did to the Zerg, something tells me sometime down the road you're going to need it again."

Jim nodded. The kid had a point in that too. During their trip to Char, he had been so caught up in possibility that the relic could get Sarah back that he didn't pay attention to what Valerian didn't say: he only said the device might be able to reverse the infestation, he said nothing about this reversal was a permanent one. Still, if it's only temporary, he would hesitate about using it if she became the Queen of Blades again. Valerian made it perfectly clear that there was a very real possibility that it was entirely possible the artifact's energy nova could just kill her the same way it killed the other Zerg, but Jim insisted that was a chance he was willing to take.

Nevertheless, he felt great relief when he found Sarah still alive and de-infested upon entering the hive. He had no intention of using the artifact again at the slightest sign of abnormal behavior from her. In fact he already expected such actions from her. Spending 4 years with the Zerg meant when given a 2nd chance to be human again, it won't be easy for her.

"Raynor, this is one of the last dropships," Warfield said, snapping Jim out of his thoughts. "Ready to leave this hell hole?"

"Go on ahead, General. I'll wait for another one. You may have given me command of the invasion force, but they're still your Dominion soldiers on that ship, most of them wounded. You're a CO they recognize, I'm still just a terrorist to them."

Warfield nodded, as he began walking up the ramp to the dropship. "I'll send another dropship down to pick you and the rest of your Raiders up within the hour then."

Jim watched as the dropship took off into the sky to join the rest of the Dominion fleet, or what's left of it anyway, before turning to a very slight light diffraction near him and nodding. A ghost suddenly materialized out of nothing.

"Warfield was telling the truth about ordering his troops not to harm the former Queen of Blades, Jim. Even so, I'd be careful. I'm not convinced everyone under his command will obey that order."

"And yourself?"

"My loyalty has been to the Dominion, not Mengsk himself. Still, after everything I've seen you do, it's pretty obvious that you're the true freedom fighter, while that bastard is nothing but a power hungry psychopath. I can see now I had been taken the wrong team all this time, and I should have fought by your side all along."

"I'm glad you're part of the Raiders now, Nova. You did real good today."

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**Authors Note: Please read and review and let me know if you think this story is interesting, or a wreck on a wreck. Although the fic will eventually focus on Raynor and Kerrigan, it is also my intention to try and develop a little bit of the supporting characters of Wings of Liberty. I feel some of them should have their voices heard to some extent, and that is exactly what I hope to do before Kerrigan enters the story. There will be some very interesting twists and turns for Raynor and Kerrigan to encounter, I promise you that.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: All right everyone, the next chapter is here. This chapter is devoted to trying to develop Nova's character. In the SC universe, she does not remember anything about her past, nor does she care, which in turn basically makes her a Dominion slave. However after I played "Ghost of a Chance", it's pretty obvious there is still humanity in her, and it is my intention to bring that out.**

**As always please read and review, and let me know if you like the way I portrayed her or not.**

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Chapter 3

**Warfield's Forward Base, Char**

"What do you think of Valerian?" Jim asked. "He's certainly not like Arcturus, I'll give him that much, but there's still that Mengsk flare."

"Hard to say," the blond ghost replied. "The emperor himself knows how to block out thoughts from psychics, so it wouldn't surprise me one bit if his son can do the same. Still, the ability to block out thoughts from telepaths depends on the strength of the psychic, and most ghosts only have a psionic signature of 5 or 6. Anything above that is very rare, and mine is at 10, which is virtually unheard of."

"So you think if you tried probing the prince's mind you could determine if he's being truthful or not?"

"Probably, but it's likely I'd also end up frying his brain and leaving him in a permanently comatose state if I tried that hard, assuming he tries to resist it. Still, even if he's lying to you about everything, at least he's been straightforward about it, which was something you told me Mengsk never really did. I'd say for the time being to take his word unless he does something to prove otherwise."

Nova was right on that aspect, and it amazed Jim at times how quickly she earned his trust. After dealing with Tosh and his spectres on Avernus Station, he had been tempted to ask her to join his cause. When she gave him the specs for ghost training and parted ways, he had thought that was the end of the matter, or if the next time they meet, it'll involve bullets flying.

The timing for their next encounter, however, couldn't have been more perfect.

After obtaining the ghost specs, he turned his thoughts back to Mengsk, and getting the decrypted adjutant information from Orlan on Deadman's Port, only to be forced to compete in a resource race with him to win Mira Han's loyalty. What he hadn't expected on was that Nova had snuck onboard the Hyperion at that time to give Tosh's voodoo doll to him. She was still on the ship when the decrypted adjutant coughed up the intercepted transmissions regarding the fall of Tarsonis, which Jim had broadcasted throughout the Hyperion. Nova was outraged at Mengsk's tactic of total genocide of the Confederacy and revealed herself to Jim, claiming she had no intention of serving under a Dominion who's leader was willing to go any length just to feed his insatiable lust for power.

Much of Jim's crew were hesitant on trusting a Dominion ghost, insisting that Jim said it himself that all Dominion ghosts are nothing more than Mengsk's slaves, but he saw something different in Nova even before they fought side by side on Avernus station.

All the ghosts of the Dominion have Neural Inhibitors implanted in them, and that didn't surprise Jim. It was merely a way to ensure that Mengsk would always be in control, and that no ghost ever gave up vital Dominion secrets to his enemies, something Jim knew would be too long of a list to write down. However after Mengsk spent 4 years of using the media to kill his reputation, he had also expected just about everyone in the Dominion to shoot him on sight, something that Nova did not do.

It didn't take long for him to realize that when Nova contacted him about Tosh upon arriving at New Folsom, her Neural Inhibitor was not activated. This was something he hadn't expected. As far as he was concerned initially, she was just one of Mengsk's lackeys: extremely difficult to replace, but still expendable nonetheless. That she was allowed to keep her free will and offer her help to defeat Tosh by fighting along his side proved to Jim right then and there that Nova was different from the other Dominion ghosts he had previous encountered.

Upon fighting by her side, he quickly saw the similarities compared to when he and Kerrigan first fought side by side against Duke on Antiga Prime. Truth be told, she reminded him of Sarah in a lot of ways, though Nova seemed much more emotionally detached to others and far more focused on the mission at hand.

Still, she cooperated with him and his Raiders and brought down Tosh's spectre army, and Jim was thankful for her intentions to keep the Koprulu sector safe. She had frowned at the thought of him using mercenaries for his revolution, but admitted that in rough times, strange alliances are needed.

It didn't take long before the rest of the Raiders had their distrust waver. Nova had assisted him in the capture of the UNN Studios complex on Korhal, which sparked total riots across the Dominion worlds. Jim decided that was enough proof that Nova had severed her loyalties to the Dominion, and had Dr. Hanson remove the Neural Inhibitors in her so Mengsk couldn't take control of her ever again.

Nevertheless, Nova admitted she still had a long way to go before she could fully remember who she once was. The last thing she remembered before becoming one of Mengsk's slaves was a memory wipe that heavily suppressed all her memories of her previous life, and that this practice was standard protocol for all Dominion ghosts and was even used during the time of the Confederacy. Jim knew about the Dominion wanting to keep control over their ghosts, but he did not suspect Mengsk would turn _all_ of them into drones.

Nova explained that Mengsk's idea of this came from back in the days of the Confederacy, when they only used psionic dampeners. Although still largely used today in the Dominion's ghost program to control their agents, the Confederate psionic dampeners were only designed to control those with a signature of 7 or lower. Anything above that signature meant risking the dampener being overloaded and a total loss of control, and that was what led to Kerrigan's defection from the Confederacy. Although Nova showed Jim that newer models were later designed by the Dominion, they still did not guarantee total control for ones with a signature as high as hers, and that was why the 2nd precaution of the memory swipe was necessary.

However, there was still a chance for all of them to remember who they once were. Nova explained that Mengsk forbade the usage of the memory swipe to erase their memories all together. This was done during the initial stages of the ghost program, but it ended up turning the Dominion ghosts into mindless shells, incapable of creativity on their own part and utterly incapable of independent thought, and that was simply unacceptable when they are on the battlefield. As such, Mengsk was forced compromise and only use the memory swipe to suppress memories, but his associates in the Ghost Program assured him that no ghost would have the willpower strong enough to overcome it.

Jim, however, had no intention of letting Nova live an empty life, and told her that once they're finished here on Char, he'll contact some of his Protoss allies and see if they can help her recover her memories. Of course, during the immediate aftermath, his primary concern remained with Sarah, and he was desperate to return to the Hyperion lab to see how she was doing.

"Jim, are you ok?" Nova asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"It's nothing, Nova. I'm just still trying to let things sink in after everything that's happened here."

"You're thinking about Kerrigan, Jim, and I don't need to read your mind to know you love her," the blond ghost insisted. "You already told me about what you and her had done while you fought on Mengsk's side, so it doesn't take a genius to know you've spent the last 4 years thinking about how to get her back, no matter how unlikely that may be."

"And what do you think of her?" Jim asked.

Nova sighed. "Kerrigan was a legend in the ghost program long before she even defected from the Confederacy. Only a few people knew the truth about her being the Queen of Blades during her time with the Zerg, though I didn't know Mengsk had abandoned her on Tarsonis until you told me."

"And her protest wasn't even an unreasonable one," Jim pointed out. "You heard the intercepted transmissions. Sarah didn't want a whole planet to be killed just so Mengsk could take his revenge against the Confederacy. You told me yourself in all the years you've spent in the Dominion, you've never once heard of genocide on such a scale."

"And I haven't. Still, she had always been my ultimate test of strength. The Confederacy may be long gone, but some of their legends still live, and she was among them, portrayed as the most psionically gifted Terran in history. In fact, during the time I fought under Mengsk, I had been told that I was his most gifted psychic that would later help him bring peace to the Koprulu sector. In reality I was merely used as a weapon to him, just one that wasn't as expendable."

"What does it have to do with Sarah?"

"After I had seen the similarities in facial appearances between Kerrigan and the Queen of Blades, Mengsk told me that my suspicions were correct. But he insisted that she was simply one of the casualties on Tarsonis, and that had she not been, she would have taken my place as his ultimate weapon."

"That's all Mengsk ever sees in anyone," Jim replied, placing his hand on Nova's shoulder. "Everything is just a stepping stone for more power. You deserved a chance at freedom a long time ago, and valued for your actions. Hell, just look at how many lives you saved when we assaulted the orbital platform! Warfield said clearing it with ground forces would result in a bloodbath, and you helped ensure we took only moderate casualties."

Nova looked down at the ground. "I know that, Jim. But it still doesn't change the fact that I spent much of my time training to surpass her. I know you treat the troops under your command much better than the Dominion ever did, but even you have priorities. And in times of war, you know certain lives have to be expended for the price of victory."

"You think just because Sarah is psionically stronger than you that I'd suddenly see you as some expendable asset? Nova, every soldier under my command I deem valuable because each of them have their individual lives."

"But Kerrigan is more than that. Even without this prophecy it's obvious she meant everything to you. Half the crew on the Hyperion told me you'd have paid any price to get her back to the way she was."

"That doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to see everyone else as expendable," the former Confederate Marshal replied, before holding up a dog tag. "See this, Nova? This belonged to a marine named Koiter. He was among the finest marines I had ever known in my Raiders, and his death hurt me deeply. I knew the casualties would be appalling in this invasion, but I always wanted to see every one of my Raiders make it out alive. That's the difference between the marines in my Raiders compared to those in the Dominion. Most of the marines under my command are clean, not a single prison sentence. On the other hand, more than 95 percent of the Dominion marines were once homicidal psychopaths. The only thing that's keeping them from going completely psycho and killing everything they see is the neural resocialization process."

"Don't you see the difference here?" Jim continued, "When it comes to homicidal psychopaths under Mengsk's rule, there's no shortage of them. That means they are barely more than cannon fodder, all to be sacrificed for the bigger picture. I would never sacrifice my troops like some expendable asset. Obviously some would become casualties, but I value each and every one of them. Your fear that I'd suddenly forget about you now that Kerrigan is back is misplaced. You will always have my respect, and that from the rest of the Raiders. You will never have to live an insignificant existence like you did back in the Dominion ever again."

Nova nodded slowly, all her years spent in the Dominion she was never once shown any compassion. Despite fighting alongside Raynor's Raiders for a couple of weeks now, the concept was still foreign to her. She realized she still had a long way to go to understand Jim's morals and principals, and that was something that could only be done via experience, not simply by probing his mind.

She was still somewhat afraid of what she might end up uncovering in her previous life if his Protoss buddies really could reverse the memory wipe, but Nova suddenly remembered when she fought by Jim's side on Meinhoff. During her time with the Dominion she had sincerely believed that infested terrans were nothing more than empty shells of a human body with a zerg mind, but the infestation on Meinhoff had somewhat changed her mind on that topic.

The infested terran marines didn't surprise her one bit. She had long since known the Zerg try to assimilate everything they conquer, so it would only be natural for them to assimilate terran technological knowledge. Therefore it wouldn't have required much effort for the Zerg to understand how to use a C-14 Impaler gauss rifle via an infested marine.

But it was the state of the infested refugees that surprised Nova. While most of them acted like mindless zombies, there were a few of them she saw that begged the Raiders to kill them as they came into bunker firing range. Thus it was possible that either they were dealing with a new generation of Zerg infestation, or the virus wasn't as powerful as she had been led to believe. Whichever case it was, she realized then that infested terrans still maintained a small degree of their humanity, though their free will was another matter entirely.

Since seeing what had happened on Meinhoff, Nova shared Jim's interest and curiosity in just what did the Zerg infestation really do to Kerrigan. To her, it seemed that Sarah maintained much of her free will, although deeply manipulated. But considering the fact that prior to her infestation all the infested terrans had no free will or humanity in them at all, Nova deeply wondered if some form of humanity was retained in Kerrigan's infestation. If so, whatever she had undergone during her time with the Zerg would be far worse than anything Nova could possibly imagine, let alone have experienced. For that matter, she knew she had to be strong when the time came to discovering her past. If Kerrigan can endure the pains she went through when she was the Queen of Blades, Nova's dark past should be a walk in the park in comparison.

That is, of course, assuming she really _is_ human again. Like Jim, Nova too wanted to believe the Xel'Naga artifact had finally stripped Kerrigan of the murderous nature the infestation had given her, but like most of his crew, she understood that this had to be proven. Enough people had suffered at the hands of the Queen of Blades, and a physical appearance change alone wasn't enough to change Nova's mind, and Jim knew after bringing Sarah to the Hyperion lab that none of his crew will be convinced from that either.

"Come on, Nova," Jim said, gesturing upwards. Nova looked up to see another dropship descend from the sky. "It's time we get off this ash rock."

"You read my mind," Nova replied, as the dropship landed near them. "After experiencing what happened here, I'm almost going to be glad that you're turning your attention back to the revolution again."

"That might still have to be put on hold for a while longer," the commander replied, as the two of them began walking up the ramp. "We could have something far worse than Mengsk coming down the road. As long as the Dominion worlds remain distrustful of him, I've got a time window to focus my attentions elsewhere."

"You want to know more about this prophecy," Nova stated.

"Exactly. Every battle fought we need intelligence on the enemy, and this one is by far the most enigmatic yet. It doesn't appear anyone seems to know anything about this Dark Voice," Jim answered, as he and blond ghost sat down, before turning his head to the cockpit. "Pilot, get us out of here. I've seen enough Zerg to last me quite a while."

Jim reached over and grasped Nova's hand. "Nova, until you turned away from the Dominion you were their strongest and most lethal soldier, sent out on all kinds of assassination missions to hunt down their enemies. They valued you for your killing potential, but it also meant that you weren't just some expendable pawn to them. They had to have protected you in some aspect, and therefore it gave you some insight how the Dominion fights, as well as their military secrets. I promise, our revolution will turn back to Mengsk in time, and when that time comes, what you know will be invaluable in restoring freedom to the people."

"If you think we'll make it through this, I believe you," Nova said, gently squeezing Jim's hand. "Mengsk has to go, one way or another, and I'll keep fighting until that day comes."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Just for the sake of being April Fool's Day, I decided to put up the next chapter. This one is slightly shorter compared to the other chapters, but there are some questions I feel people might have had in Wings of Liberty that should be answered. This chapter is an attempt to tie up some of those loose ends, as well as give further character development.**

**As always, please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter 4

**Bridge, Hyperion, Deep Space**

Jim nodded to Matt as he entered the Hyperion bridge. Sarah was still asleep in the medbay, and Stetmann had no clue just how much longer before she'll wake up. With the vast majority of the crew still drinking their worth of liquor in the Cantina, he saw no point in going there.

"We're receiving a transmission from the Bucephalus, sir," Matt gestured to the communicator.

"Patch it through, Matt."

"Commander, it is good to see you," Valerian greeted.

"So what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?" Jim asked. "Everything that's should have been done has been done already."

"For the most part yes. I will be returning to Korhal shortly to explain to the public what had happened here on Char. The broadcast recordings and transmissions I promised I would be sending to the public have already been sent. Just about every Dominion world will be receiving the news of your actions."

"You already told me that, kid. Anything new that you haven't said yet?"

"That would be concerning General Warfield."

"What about him?"

"As you know, your broadcast about my father's role in the Tarsonis genocide had left the general pretty shaken. He may not have liked you during the initial Char invasion, but he certainly seemed to have changed his mind."

"Let me guess, he doesn't want to return to the Dominion to serve under such a tyrant?"

"That, and the fact he feels it's much more beneficial to fight alongside a commander who actually knows the Zerg tactics and strategies, rather than a man who has just been winging it the whole time and hoping for the best."

"Sir, we should take this opportunity," Matt said eagerly. "As the commander of the Dominion fleet, Warfield would have important tactical data regarding the Dominion military. It will be of great value to us once our revolution against Mengsk starts up again."

A new face suddenly appeared on the screen. It was Warfield. "I am an honorable man, Raynor. Mengsk and I first met in the Confederate military and served under him before he led the Sons of Korhal."

Jim frowned. "What do you know about the Sons of Korhal, general?"

"As I'm sure you remember, when you had joined the Sons of Korhal, it had already won countless victories against the Confederacy, although were unsuccessful in toppling it. Let's just say I was their inside man."

"Mengsk never said anything about you during the time I served with him," Jim pointed out.

"That's because I wasn't an official member of his gang. It was I who provided Mengsk with the information he required about Confederate military strength and tactics that led to his success. My family was killed during the Zerg invasion of Tarsonis, and upon the creation of the Dominion, Mengsk promised me that by being a part of his military, I would be able to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again. Now that I know it was the bastard himself that was responsible for my family's death, well let's just say you're not the only one with a bone to pick with him."

"I sure do appreciate that, general," Jim replied, before turning to Valerian again. "Well junior, it looks like all the loose ends here have been tied up. It appears you'll have no problem getting what you want of being a better man than your father."

"I'll take just a very small section of the fleet back with me to Korhal then," the young prince said. "The rest will be joining up with your Raiders now. Farewell, Mr. Raynor. We'll meet again in the future."

Jim turned off the monitor and turned to Matt. "Matt, take us to Haven. Dr. Hanson is the best expert on Zerg right now, and I'm going to be needing her help with Sarah's situation. Mengsk will have his problems with the media to deal with, that'll suffice for his suffering for now."

* * *

**Unknown Location**

In an unknown location, the Dark Voice seethed with anger at the recent events that had unfolded, before turning his attention to Samir Duran. "Do you have any idea the scale of the catastrophe this has brought upon me?"

"You give them too much credit, master," Duran responded humbly. "The terrans are utterly incapable of understanding the nature of our grand scheme. The Protoss have far greater potential in understanding it all, but they had foolishly denied themselves that opportunity due to their culture and their inability to change traditions."

"Don't you speak to me in such an arrogant tone, Duran," the Dark Voice said dangerously. "You failed me! Your awakened hybrids are supposed to have mastered the art of enslavement and destruction for my great plan! Your creation failed to assassinate Zeratul, even with a whole Zhakul tribe of Protoss at its disposal!"

"Maar was one of my first hybrids," Duran said, trying to assure his master that his creations are more than capable of carrying out their plans. "You knew the first ones had not fully understood the concept of combat alongside others. It was why Maar continuously attacked the base alone, when all it had to do was gather the Zhakul Guardians in force, and wipe out the intruders."

"Your hybrid was a failure, plain and simple! Not only did it fail to deal with Zeratul, it did not even succeed in preventing him from freeing the holy preservers! Now the Nerazim has succeeded in translating the prophecy and poses a further threat to my great plan!"

"With all due respect, master, neither one of us is innocent in this aspect. Both of us lacked the vision to see the specifics in the assimilations of the Zerg Swarm. Both of us failed to see the implications that Kerrigan would have posed until the destruction of the Overmind. Had we seen it sooner, the Zerg Swarm would still be ours to command."

The Dark Voice held back his desire to eradicate Duran for such an insult against him. As much as he hated to admit it, Duran was right. When the Zerg had initially taken Kerrigan into the Swarm, he corrected expected the Overmind to have her infested. As such, his orders to the Overmind had been the same as with all the other captured terrans: have them infested, and then use them to strengthen the Swarm. Even after the discovery of the Zerg attraction to certain terran beings, he saw nothing was wrong with the picture. In fact, the attraction to such emanations simply made the job easier for the Zerg to eradicate the terran species, and have their knowledge assimilated for his personal use.

As the emanations became stronger with other terrans encountered, the Dark Voice still did not change his order to the Overmind. After all, they still succumbed to the Zerg might, so they did nothing more than delay the inevitable. Although the 1st encounter with Kerrigan proved unsuccessful in her defeat, the Dark Voice quickly saw that her emanation was far stronger than any other terran yet encountered.

Given the uniqueness of the psychic emanations, it had been theorized that should a certain threshold be reached, it would be possible to control individual Zerg. Upon looking back, the Dark Voice saw that his greatest error was his claim that such a theory was utter rubbish, as it was his belief the Zerg could not be controlled by a non-Xel'Naga being.

Nevertheless, he had learned that something seemed to set Kerrigan apart from the other terrans. In terms of psionic powers, the Zerg possessed nothing more than telepathy, allowing the individual minions to communicate with one another, and the same applied to different strains. But just as the Zerg Swarm had assimilated the terrans to learn more about them and use what they had to their advantage, so too did the terrans to the captured Zerg.

Although nowhere near the ability to assimilate and understand like the Zerg are able to, the terrans nevertheless researched and experimented on individual Zerg in the hopes to learn more about them. It was from these experiments, carried out by a terran force known as the Confederacy, that the Dark Voice first learned the terrans had discovered the Zerg attraction to psychic emanations to certain terran individuals. Kerrigan was among the terran test subjects, and whereas most of the Zerg responses were minimal to the subjects, the response to her was far more active and specific.

It had become clear to him right then and there, that there was something this terran possessed that attracted the Zerg. Even so, attraction to the Zerg is one thing, being able to dictate them is quite another. Thus even after her assimilation into the Swarm, the Dark Voice still saw her as a pawn compared to the other infested terrans, just a much stronger pawn.

However, as her power continued to grow in the Zerg Swarm as the Queen of Blades, it became clear to him that the Overmind was giving her far more power than even that of its cerebrates. By the time of its death on Aiur, the Dark Voice finally saw its plan for Kerrigan. But by then it had been too late. His control over the Zerg Swarm had been lost, and for years he had fumed at the inability to take command what had been rightfully his from the very beginning, and to complete what should have been done eons ago had he had the means to.

"There is one benefit to be gained from all the events that have transpired," he said finally. "After ages of searching, my ascension is finally within reach again."

Duran nodded. "I will not fail you, master. As we speak, more of my hybrids are developing."

"What of the awakened one?"

"It is ready to do your bidding. It has already been sent its designated location, per your instructions."

"Good. Once it arrives I will personally give it its specific orders. It may have proved to be a success on its previous task, but after your failed hybrid on Zhakul, I remain skeptical about its next objective."

"It will be a success, master. They will never stand a chance against it."

"They had better not, Duran. My patience is wearing thin. The Zerg Swarm _will_ be mine again."

"It will be, master. All we need now is a little more time. Your millennia old plan is on the verge of fruition."

"Time is also starting to turn against us, young Duran. You cannot speed up the other hybrids' awakening process without removing some of the perfections I had so painstakingly forged into their making. I will not allow more failures like Maar again."

"Then perhaps we should reconsider the replication process once more. We have more than enough samples to create an entire army of them."

The Dark Voice growled angrily. "Your duplication of my greatest creations turned them into reckless psychopaths! It was my understanding that they would retain the ability to obey my commands!"

"The accelerated cloning process is still imperfect," Duran defended. "It will take a certain number of failed cloning experiments before a perfected version could be created. It is still a quicker process compared to creation of the original hybrids."

"I will not allow a hybrid army on the loose that has no self control! I need them under my command to enslave the Zerg Swarm!" the Dark Voice seethed. "I showed you leniency by not terminating your cloning experiment after your initial clone failed, and by simply discarding it rather than killing it myself!"

"At least reconsider, master," Duran pleaded. "The cloned hybrid isn't _completely_ useless to us. It still share a residual psychic link to both of us, just like all of your original ones do. And while we can't give it commands, we can still track it, and see what it does."

"That is true," the Dark Voice admitted. "I must say I was surprised to see the terrans take such an interest in such a creature. Though I cannot say the same for their further experimenting on it when they have virtually no understanding of it at all."

"That is the nature of all terrans. All they want is more power, no matter where the source comes from. They are utterly incapable of realizing there are certain powers simply beyond their control or even their narrow understanding. It is with satisfaction that we now see the creature rampaging about, destroying the remains of the lab on Castanar."

"This Arcturus Mengsk you speak of who appears to be trying to replicate the clone is exactly the reason why the terrans in this universe must be purged! My creations may be under my command to enslave and destroy, but I never once attempted to control them so completely! I may be considered perfection in comparison to the Zerg, Protoss, and Terrans, but even I am not flawless! That is why my hybrids are still given a choice to reason and question some of my minor directives at times, even if they are only aware of the choice on a subconscious level! The wretched terran creature, on the other hand, prefers to see everyone around him without thought and reason at all!"

"This is why I ask again for your consent in letting me proceed forward with my replicating experiments again, master," Duran pointed out. "Terran technology is inferior compared to Protoss technology. You saw it yourself, for all the terran attacks on the hybrid clone at Castanar, the result was negligible to it. A whole army of them would wipe out the terran race before they could even see what is happening!"

The Dark Voice paused for a moment, before nodding to Duran. "Very well, young one. You may proceed with the cloning experiments again, but it is to be done my way. None of the completed clones are to be awakened without my express knowledge or consent. Should I choose to awaken them, those that could not be controlled are to be discarded onto terran territory."

"Thank you, master," Duran bowed and turned to leave, before the Dark Voice stopped him.

"But know this, Duran: if they cannot be controlled, their only purpose to me is for the eradication of the terran species. Once that is completely, they will be destroyed. I suggest you perfect the clones quickly."

"Of course," Duran replied. He had a great deal of work ahead of him now, but at least he was allowed to proceed. As he walked away, he couldn't help but wonder how the cloned hybrids would fare against the more cunning terrans they had encountered.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**High Orbit Over Haven**

"Jim, it's good to see you again," Dr. Ariel Hanson greeted. "I take it your assault on Char was a success?"

"It kind of depends on what you mean by success, Doc," Jim replied into the communicator. "That artifact did de-infest Kerrigan, although no one knows right now if her murderous nature had been stripped as well or not."

"You want me to help in that issue," Ariel stated.

"Exactly. I told you all the details regarding the prophecy during the time you spent on my ship, you know Sarah is the key to all of this. But getting her back to human form is just the starting step. The next step is to get her into shape so she can do her part in preventing Armageddon, and that's not going to happen until she is able to recover from everything that's happened to her during the time she spent with the Zerg."

Ariel nodded. "I did see this coming ever since you saved my people from the Protoss on Haven. They are not going to be pleased to see Kerrigan again, no matter what form she's in."

Jim sighed. The fact that Haven is a Protoss world is yet another obstacle he would have to overcome. It was bad enough fighting Selendis over the Zerg infestation virus that the female executor deemed impossible to cure short of eradicating the colonists completely. The fact that Dr. Hanson did not send out a call for help after the Protoss fleet had been driven off was barely short of a miracle. He did not expect the Protoss to give her the benefit of the doubt and allow her to proceed with trying to discover a cure. After everything that had happened to the Protoss people by Kerrigan's hand, he was fully expecting a very hostile greeting from the Protoss before the Hyperion could even touch the ground.

Still, while Sarah's infestation may have been different from the others, it was an infestation nonetheless. If there was some way to persuade the Protoss that infested humans were being controlled to commit atrocities against their own will, maybe there was still a chance.

"Doc, how is the cure for the virus coming along?" Jim asked. "It's my hope that if you can cure your own people, you can do similarly to help Sarah."

"Surprisingly enough, there are some Protoss who actually believed me. Apparently their technology had created some sort of serum known as anti-zerg nanites. It was originally designed to sever the link the infested terrans had with the Zerg, but apparently there were some that could even reverse the infestation altogether."

"I've seen it in action myself, Ariel. After the Brood War and the UED's defeat, a UED officer by the name of Alexei Stukov had been revived by the Zerg on Braxis. I fought alongside the Protoss to restore him back to human form using the same serum you just described, and it turned out to be a success. Did they give you the serum to test on the infested refugees?"

Ariel nodded. "Unfortunately the Zerg virus has also evolved, the serum is now useless in such restorations. The most it can do is slow down the rate of infestation, and even then there's no guarantee. The Protoss here have given me access to some of the serum to buy extra time while I come up with a cure of my own. So far, what I have developed is working out."

"So you've cured them?"

"Not to that extent. I've been able to isolate and quarantine the virus, preventing it from spreading further. The only ones this has proved to be ineffective against are the aberrations, but you saw what they looked like on Meinhoff. The virus had mutated them to the point where they didn't look anything like a human being anymore."

"Well those are relatively rare, so I'd say you did a great job for your people."

"Out of curiosity Jim, why is there a huge Dominion fleet with you? I thought after Char you had no more use of their help."

Jim smiled. "After everything I had accomplished on Char, much of the Dominion officers had finally began to question if I was really the terrorist Mengsk portrayed me as all those years. Given that I saved so many of their soldiers, let's just say they're more willing to look at things from my perspective for a little while."

"I'm glad to hear that," Ariel replied. "Still, I'd imagine after all the fighting that had happened on Char, you must also be bringing in thousands upon thousands of wounded people that need treatment."

"Of course, and I'm not here to ask you to help Kerrigan the moment I touch down. She's still peacefully asleep down in the med bay, so you can concentrate on helping the wounded first. I'll be seeing you on the surface soon."

Jim turned off the communicator, before turning to Stetmann. "Now that we've got a better Zerg expert to help Sarah, I want to know what you have found out so far since she was brought up to the ship."

Stetmann hesitated, unsure how the commander would take the news. "Well there are still traces of Zerg DNA in her, though the vast majority of her DNA is human again."

Jim nodded. It was too much to have expected the Xel'Naga artifact to work perfectly, and that's just from the physical aspect of it. "For the remaining Zerg blood in her, can it be removed?"

"Hard to say, sir. They don't appear to be spreading, so the chances are virtually zero that she could return to the Queen of Blades again, at least from the physical standpoint. In terms of removing it, that could be dangerous. The traces are clinging to her vital organs, and trying to remove them could cause them to shut down."

"What about her mind? Or is it impossible to tell right now?"

"There's no Zerg DNA present in her brain, so theoretically, she should be back her normal self in that aspect."

Jim shook his head. There is absolutely no way Sarah could wake up and still be the same woman he first met on Antiga Prime. Still, he had been surprised to discover the surgical operation had been a success. The Zerg tendril like hair had been removed, and as Stetmann theorized, her natural red hair had begun growing again. With the help of modern medicine, her shiny hair had already grown past her shoulders. He had been expecting something along the lines of the mutated hair had forced Zerg DNA into her brain, and if removed, would kill her instantly.

Nevertheless, he refused to take any chances. Ever since Kerrigan had been brought aboard the Hyperion, he had posted guards outside the med bay, under orders to alert him to any signs of unusual behavior. Nova had detected a sharp psionic signature jump in her mind shortly after she had been brought into the med bay, and Jim immediately agreed to her recommendation to fit the psionic dampener to Sarah's head to drain that energy.

Stetmann had theorized that this is because most of the psionic power she had were still of terran origin, and Jim was inclined to agree. After fighting alongside and against both Confederate and Dominion ghosts since his military days, and then alongside the Protoss and seen firsthand of their psionic potential, Raynor felt that in comparison, the only psionic power the Zerg possessed was the mental attraction to terran psionic individuals.

If so, then Sarah's infestation could not have created new powers, but rather enhanced them. Now it was still unclear to Jim if her powers had been reduced down to that of a normal human, of if the traces of Zerg DNA in her meant they were still enhanced and as powerful as ever.

That is, he told himself, assuming the Xel'Naga artifact didn't affect her psionic potential as well.

Nova had felt exactly the same after the energy blasts from the relic when she fought along him to defend the Xel'Naga artifact from Kerrigan, which seemed to suggest the artifact was completely harmless to terrans, but Jim had recalled that some of his crew experienced hallucinations and felt device was haunted. This seems to suggest to him that the artifact is indeed capable of affecting human beings, just not killing them.

In Sarah's case, he had Nova check up at the med bay on a daily basis. Until she wakes up, the former Dominion ghost is the strongest psionic individual on the ship, and therefore was the most capable of detecting abnormal activity in that area. Jim didn't want to believe the Zerg enhanced powers were still present in Kerrigan, but he knew that possibility could not be ruled out.

If they were, that might not be entirely a bad thing if Sarah's mind is normal again. She had been the fiercest fighter Jim had ever seen even prior to her infestation, and while others in the Koprulu sector feel the Queen of Blades's incapacitation was a significant victory, he and all his Raiders knew this was still just another step towards toppling Mengsk and his corrupt government.

And this time, Sarah will be fighting alongside him.

"Sir, we're entering Haven's atmosphere," Matt announced, directing Jim's thoughts elsewhere.

"Good," the commander replied. "Send the word to the other ships to be on battle alert."

"What for? You had saved those people down there, why would they be hostile to us?"

"It's not them, Matt. I'm more concerned about the Protoss. We're taking Kerrigan down to what was once their colony. She's going to be surrounded by thousands of Protoss, every one of them who want her dead for all that she's done. Even now, most of my boys are still uncomfortable about letting her live, and I already anticipate Warfield will be telling me he's having problems getting his Dominion troops to control their seething hatred for her. Therefore, I'm not going to be one bit surprised if I'd have to deal with Protoss barging their way through us for her head."

* * *

**Imperial Palace, Augustgrad, Korhal**

Arcturus Mengsk turned off the media news coverage screen, absolutely livid. Valerian really had every intention to topple him from his throne. From every channel he saw, broadcasts were being made about the invasion of Char, and his boy was making public speeches to reporters from all over the sector. Rather than claiming all credit, he gave it all to Jim Raynor, stating that had it was the commander's strategy that won them this victory, while his strategy would have gotten the whole invasion fleet annihilated.

Even worse, Valerian had continuously criticized the Dominion military, or rather what remained of it, for their sheer stupidity and incompetence, and all their boasts about stopping the Zerg were nothing but empty words, whereas Jim Raynor actually delivered on his promise. Now Mengsk's control over the media had weakened even more. With Vermilion gone, Kate Lockwell has declared that the UNN will no longer be fully supportive of the Terran Dominion, and focus on investigating the perspectives of other factions, rather than swallowing everything that comes out of the Dominion's version of the truth.

To make things worse, other Dominion media branches were starting to follow UNN's example. Although there's still a few that are sympathetic towards the Dominion, more and more branches have publicly announced that they're finally starting to question the emperor's declarations and intentions of peace, and speculation was rapidly spreading about if Raynor was ever an unscrupulous, lawless revolutionary to begin with.

All over the news, every media branch had declared the one thing he had been dreading: that his words and claims about peace to the sector could no longer be trusted. His popularity had receded to just 14 percent after the broadcasts on Korhal. With the broadcasts about what had happened on Char, it has become a total catastrophe.

The ending was supposed to have been different! He was supposed to have been the hero for stopping Zerg invasion! With the vast number of Zerg in the galaxy, he knew that it made no difference how many of them anyone killed, it'd only take a matter of weeks, or at most months, before the Zerg fully recovered. The only way to defeat them was to go for the command chain, and that meant killing the Queen of Blades.

This was exactly the reason he had allowed Tychus Findley to be released from New Folsom. During the 9 years the convict spent there he had known about the man's friendship with Raynor. Similarly, he also knew about how Raynor felt about Kerrigan.

Invasion or not, Mengsk knew it was inevitable that Raynor and Kerrigan would cross paths again at some point. What the former Confederate Marshal would do was irrelevant, as Tychus would have delivered the bullet to end her life. At that point, he would simply activate the codes to have the convict killed, and then broadcast how he had killed the Queen of Blades to the media, dealing a blow to the Zerg in which it would be virtually impossible for them to recover. He would have seen the people's savior to every world, whether they were pro-Dominion or not.

Now, not only was his plan in total ruins, but his arch enemy had achieved a victory over him that rivaled his victory over the Confederacy. It was bad enough that many Dominion worlds saw him as a tyrannical mass murderer after what happened on Korhal, but now he is being portrayed as an utter coward who had no intention of saving the people he had sworn to protect, and if things got too rough, was willing to sacrifice everyone if it ensured his own survival.

It had only been a few days since the first of Valerian's broadcasts, and already his son's popularity had exceeded that of his own. Jim Raynor's, on the other hand, had skyrocketed all the way up to 82 percent, while his was down to only 0.1 percent. All of a sudden, the steps he had taken to ensure humanity's survival, and his actions that built up an empire of law and order, meant nothing to the public.

Most of the Dominion worlds have openly declared that they would want nothing to do with the Dominion until new leadership is placed on the throne. They no longer felt safe about being under Dominion protection. Some of them had even gone as far as declaring they would turn to the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate if Raynor's Raiders were not available.

This was utter madness. The Kel-Morian Combine practiced slavery, while the Umojans had more spies than he wanted to believe. Both factions were full of pirates, scoundrels, criminals, murderers, and traitors. And despite the experience of such claims the Dominion worlds had experienced of them in the past, even their popularity had exceeded that of his own, although their military strength remained inferior to that of the Dominion's.

However, the media speculations declared that this was exactly the reason why they were not able to take the fight to the Zerg. Without sufficient numbers, any and all offensive operations would have proven futile. And while both factions had given ground from the invasion, at least they had made far greater efforts to save their own people, instead of just simply abandoning them like expendable assets. To that end, the public are acting like the mindless drones he had always expected them to be, and willing to turn to anyone who is able to protect them.

Unfortunately, this time the concept was being used against him, but he still had one last trump card up his sleeve. It won't be an easy one, and it would certainly be a long path, but it could still facilitate in him regaining control of his Dominion empire.

Mengsk went over to his desk and flipped on the intercom. "General Ridgeway, how is the salvage operation coming along?"

"Not too good, sir," the general replied. "Raynor's attack on the Castanar orbital platform had wrecked havoc on the lab. Blowing the reactor and releasing the hybrid just made it even worse."

"Well, what have you managed to salvage?"

"The hybrid had destroyed most of the genetically spliced specimens that had been so painstakingly made. Most of them weren't as successful as you had hoped it would be, but we all knew creating a perfect clone of that hybrid was going to require a lot of effort, time, and patience. We were only able to recover about 12 percent of the specimens. It's much less than what we had hoped for, but it's enough to allow us to continue with the experiment from where we last left off."

"And what of the hybrid itself?"

"Still rampaging around the lab ruins. Fortunately for us it's not very smart, we were able to send a few marine squads down there to distract it while the scientists were successfully evacuated. The hybrid does not have interstellar flight capabilities, so it's pretty much stuck there."

"Can you subdue it?"

"Hard to say. Your special weapons may have proven to be very effective at killing the Zerg and Protoss test subjects, but all they seemed to do to the hybrid was make it angry."

"I didn't say kill it, general. I want it to be taken alive."

"That's not going to go well with my boys, sir. They took quite a beating from that creature just to bring it to the lab installation, and that was when we had found the hybrid floating in space in a severely weakened state. Ordering them to subdue it when it's at full strength is going to be a death sentence to them."

"Look, there has to be a way to weaken it. It had the rapid regeneration abilities like the Zerg, so it was able to restore strength on its own accord. But it was found barely alive, so someone had to know how to hurt it."

"And what do you plan to do with the hybrid once it's subdued?"

"For now, move it to another installation on Castanar. In addition, the order I gave to liquidate all the scientists working on the project is to be rescinded. Most of the computer systems in the lab have been destroyed, and with them most of the experimental data we had on the hybrid and its specimens. I'll be needing those eggheads alive to get the data back. Once I have that, the creature will play its role in securing my throne again."

* * *

**Author's Note: All right everyone, this chapter I was meant to give further development to some of the supporting characters, and as a starting point for you to see their morals and personalities. Kerrigan will be entering the story very soon, and I'll focus on her when that happens.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: All right everyone, quicker update this time. The other characters still have their role to play in the story, and that is why they're still being developed.**

* * *

Chapter 6

**Haven**

Matt Horner was on the communicator with Warfield, trying to plan out the next steps for the revolution. "I don't understand, general. Most of the Dominion worlds are in total riots, why is military still loyal to Mengsk?"

"I don't believe they are," replied the general. "Ever since Raynor broadcasted what happened on Tarsonis, the emperor has been trying to falsify the evidence. Now that it's been confirmed that the evidence is authentic, the riots have only escalated. The military right now wants to undergo some investigations about Mengsk, but that cannot happen until the rioting has been put down. Personally, I don't see that happening any time soon."

"So you're saying once the riots die down, Mengsk will be deposed?"

"Not necessarily. The Zerg invasion may have been stopped, but you heard it on the news yourself: they aren't giving up the worlds they overran. Someone has to go in and take it back."

"Then that will be our next step," Matt concluded. "Even with the mercenaries and your Dominion battle group, the Raiders still aren't strong enough to take on the Dominion fleet. We'll just have to clean the Zerg from some worlds to gain more support."

"We should start with Agria then," Warfield replied. "The Zerg infestation there isn't as bad compared to the other worlds, so it's among the easiest to take back. Besides, that Hanson doctor has already saved hundreds of my boys in her hospital, I owe her that."

"And yourself, general? You know Stetmann can grow your arm back. He did learn something from the Zerg tissue experiments he had been conduction on the ship, you know. That can apply to all of your troops that lost limbs during the Char invasion."

"I'll accept, though I can't speak for my troops in the same way. As far as they're concerned, anything is better than experiencing the Zerg again, benefit or not."

Matt nodded. "How long do you think we'll be ready to head to Agria?"

"Hard to say, captain. Last thing I want is to come back here to rearm and rebuild our forces from those lost. Haven was meant to be a temporary refugee camp for people who lost their homes, not an industrial staging point for military offensive operations. The construction yards here were designed to help build the camps for thousands of refugees in the event of space pirate attacks, not millions of them in the case of a Zerg invasion."

"Is it still possible to build up the fleet?"

"Not at the speed any of us want it. The special grenades, plasma ammo, and chrono-rift device can be mass produced on the battlecruisers here, thanks to your engineer Swann, even though I don't know how the hell he understood the last one given the fact it's probably based on alien technology. For most of the others, we're going to need the help of those construction yards."

"I'd be careful about using those yards to mass produce, general. Even if the refugees don't object, there's no telling how the Protoss will react to all of this. Remember, Haven was once their world. If we attempt a build up at such an accelerated rate, it could give them the impression we're here to kick them out and colonize the planet for ourselves. The more military ships they see, the more they're going to feel threatened."

"I was actually surprised they even allowed the former Queen of Blades to be brought down to the planet. I had been expecting a more hostile reaction."

"It took every ounce of diplomacy Jim had. I wouldn't be surprised if they have only allowed this because Kerrigan hasn't yet regained consciousness. Once she does, well let's just say I strongly recommend you increase the security around her. Jim will be doing the same, but I fear that might not be enough due to too many Protoss out for blood."

"That won't be easy, Horner. I may have ordered my troops not to harm her, but ever since that order went out there's been a lot of grumblings about being denied the chance for retribution. More and more extremists are trying to convince more of my boys it's worth taking a chance at killing her. Though most of my boys aren't convinced, the influence over them is nevertheless spreading."

"We don't have a choice in the matter. According to the prophecy, she is supposed to be the universe's savior. I admit despite Jim's claims that she is a good person, I'd want to see it for myself. I joined the Raiders when he formed it, but unfortunately that was when he broke away from Mengsk, which took place just after Kerrigan had been taken by the Zerg. I've never seen what she's like prior to her infestation."

"You're far from the only one. Few of us even know where the Queen of Blades originated from. Other than Raynor, it appears the only one who knows is Mengsk, and he can't be trusted. Some of Raynor's Protoss buddies might also know, but I don't see them trusting terrans so easily."

"And I don't expect Jim to be able to convince them for help without given something in return. For now, we should just focus on the build up to take back the infested worlds. Mengk's popularity is probably at rock bottom now, and it's my intention for it to stay there."

* * *

**Hospital, Haven**

"Well, Ariel, can you tell me anything about her?" Jim asked, as he and Dr. Hanson observed Kerrigan's sleeping form from the glass platform. Ever since Sarah had been brought down to lab in the settlement he had posted guards outside her room, though part of that reason was more protection for them than her, as there's no telling what could happen when she finally woke up.

"Despite the traces of Zerg DNA in her, she isn't infested, and her body is in healthy condition," Ariel replied. "However there are some things I was able to pick up on that your scientist Stetmann seemed to have missed."

"Such as?"

"The Zerg DNA may be dormant in her right now, but that doesn't mean they can't be reawakened."

Jim frowned. "If that happens, could she become infested again?"

"Unlikely," Ariel assured. "I did some tests from the infested refugee corpses you brought up to the ship during our encounter on Meinhoff. The amount of Zerg in her is far below the minimum levels required to even begin the infestation process, let alone complete it."

"Then what exactly can the Zerg blood do?"

"It's just a theory, but given that they're sticking to her glands, it's possible that they can give her superhuman strength, equivalent to that of a Zerg, as well as the accelerated rate of regeneration that all Zerg seem to have."

"That's not entirely a bad thing, if her humanity is restored," Jim pointed out. "But I'm more concerned about what she'll do when she wakes up. Her mind is more powerful than most people can even imagine."

"So you're saying when she wakes up she's going to be extremely dangerous," Ariel stated.

"Possibly, though not intentionally," Jim assured. "The point is, while both you and Stetmann had learned a lot about the Zerg infestation on what it does to the body, no one seems to know what it does to the mind. You're the best person for the job, but even I can't expect you to know that overnight."

"What do _you_ think, Jim?" Ariel pressed. "You've known her longer than anyone here."

The commander sighed. "What I want to believe is she had been imprisoned in her own mind for the last 4 years. She had seen everything with her own eyes, and therefore has every memory from her time with the Zerg."

"If that's true you should be happy the real Kerrigan is back now."

"I am, but it doesn't change the fact she had experienced every atrocity committed, but couldn't prevent or even deal with. Now that the Zerg influence is finally gone, the moment she wakes up all of what she has bottled up those years will spill out."

Dr. Hanson nodded. She had seen firsthand what the infested refugees were like on Meinhoff. If they had their humanity restored, they'd be driven mad by what they had done under the Zerg influence, and that was for barely a couple of days. In Kerrigan's case, 4 years should be beyond the point of no return. If Jim was right about her and she is still able to retain her free will and humanity, then she would be by far the strongest terran ever known.

"Doc, I'm also worried about the unusual storm activity that's been happening here," Jim said, turning his head back to the platform and to Sarah again. "During the time Sarah was on the ship there had been no such cases, why is it happening around her now?"

"The psionic dampeners used to drain her energy aren't designed for this," the doctor explained. "These Dominion models were only meant for the average ghost, which she is not. This is why you've been seeing cases where more of more of the dampeners have gotten overloaded."

"That still doesn't explain why the storms are happening," Jim pointed out. "Sarah hasn't been conscious ever since I carried her out of the hive cluster on Char. How could she be casting storms asleep?"

"Her brain activity has been increasing exponentially over the past days. This must be an indication that she'll wake up very soon, and part of her subconscious is already awake."

"I spoke with Nova on that matter. She told me all about the brutalities of the ghost program regime. Before the memory wipe, it was common for the ghosts to experience nightmares, but none of them caused storms."

"I agree with that," Ariel replied. "I don't believe nightmares alone can cause her to create these psionic storms. She must be remembering what she had done when she was the Queen of Blades. Those memories, combined with the nightmares she's been having, which more than likely has to do more with her reality than imagination, would have sent her mind over the edge. At least, that's my theory as to why these storms are occurring, and are starting to increase in intensity."

Jim sighed. The doctor's theory made sense, but that didn't make it any easier on him. Sarah wasn't even awake yet, and her actions are already causing trouble in the hospital. He knew this wasn't her fault, but no one else knew her the way he did. Many of his Raiders already felt Kerrigan had too much of an influence over him than he would care to admit. All of them already knew he loved her too much to ever let her go, but some have pointed out this could also be used to manipulate him.

"On another matter," Dr. Hanson continued, "The tests I've run on her has shown something about her which Stetmann seems to have missed completely."

Jim raised an eyebrow. "Is it bad?"

"Hard to say, Jim. I think it may have something to do with that Xel'Naga artifact. You became interested in it after I told you the theory that it absorbs Protoss energy, and the same might be true for Zerg."

"Back then I didn't see the artifact as anything more than a means to cure Sarah," Jim stated. "Still, you were right when you told me that the only one who knows what the thing really does is the one that created it."

"I understand. I'm a fast learner, and I knew how you felt about her shortly after your encounter on Monlyth. Your mind was so set on getting her back you weren't thinking of anything else."

Jim nodded, never taking his eyes off Sarah. "It's true, but now that I finally got her back, I seriously wonder just what this artifact really is. What did you find out about Sarah from your tests from its exposure?"

"It would appear that her psionic organs have evolved, it now far exceeds that of any ghost I've seen. The Zerg blood in her isn't taking over the tissue, but it's like her entire body has evolved into something far more than just a human being, almost like a missing link to another species entirely."

"Sarah's psionic potential was off the charts even before her infestation, Ariel. This psionic organ thing you just said is nothing new."

"I know her psionic potential is strong, but the tests have indicated that the levels it has reached is simply not possible for a human being to have. Psionic powers come from the mind's ability to cause paranormal events, but everyone's mind has a mental limit, including Kerrigan's. That is the reason why some of the Dominion's attempts to increase the psionic powers of ghosts have backfired, most of them fatally. If the mind does not have strength necessary to control those powers, they'll simply tear the mind apart."

Jim was not convinced. "Sarah is the strongest person I've known, you really need to give her some credit for her willpower, Doc."

"I don't deny that," Ariel defended. "But even after she became the Queen of Blades, her power was far from infinite. If it was your assault wouldn't have succeeded. Therefore, you know as well as I do there was a limiting factor to all this. The psionic levels in her are now so high that there is no way she would be able to sustain it, unless the artifact evolved her into something more."

The commander sighed. This was getting absolutely nowhere. The only way to know for certain is how Sarah acts, and that isn't going to happen until she wakes up. "Well whatever the case is, I need to be there for her through all this. After everything she's gone through, it's too much for one person to endure alone."

Without another word he began walking towards Sarah's room, gesturing for the guards stationed outside to let him through.

"Where are you going?" Ariel called after him.

"You said it yourself the increasing storm activity is a clear sign that Sarah will wake up soon, so I'm going to be there for her when that happens."

Dr. Hanson made no attempt to stop Jim. "Just be careful, Jim. I know you need her in your life, but there's a lot of people that need your leadership. From what I've seen about what happened on Char, it's obvious this war with the Zerg is still far from over, and a lot of people are counting on you to get them through it all."

* * *

"Sir, the attempts to neutralize the hybrid are proving futile," General Ridgeway reported. "Irradiation attacks so far have been the most useful, but the creature's regenerative capabilities are far faster than that of any Zerg I've seen. To put it bluntly, it's healing up faster than we can damage it."

"I don't want the creature damaged too badly," Mengsk said, irritated. "I need it to be in fighting condition upon captured!"

"You've seen its healing abilities yourself, it can handle its own. As long as we don't kill it, it'll fully recover in no time."

"Very well, general. Just how much success have you had against the hybrid?"

"Almost none, sir. Getting up close is suicide, as it can tear apart marines with just one swipe of its claws. It has the ability to spray some sort of slime that slows down anyone unlucky enough to be caught in it, which slows down their movement dramatically. I've tried luring it to more open places where our siege tanks could bombard it, but those tend to cost the lives of all the marines who have to lure it there, and the damage to it is still minimal. Some of my boys are nearing mutiny, unwilling to sacrifice their lives for this project of yours."

Mengsk scowled in anger. "This project could determine the fate of the whole sector! It is imperative that I get the hybrid back under my control again!"

"I understand, sir, but my boys don't see it that way. The neural resocialization may have prevented them from going into a killing rage, but it doesn't turn them into mindless drones. More and more of them are starting to question their officers about the orders to take the hybrid in alive."

"You can tell them they're being paid to obey orders, not interpret them!"

"It may not be enough if the casualties keep mounting like this, sir. If this continues, it'll reach a point where they stop obeying orders all together."

"Fine," Mengsk replied. "Then we'll just need to people that have far better killing power."

"What do you mean? I've already used marines, firebats, and marauders against the hybrid, and none of them have had any success it."

"You'll see in time, general. For now, just keep your troops concentrated fighting the creature. When the reinforcements come to help, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about."

* * *

**Medbay, Haven**

Jim sat next to Sarah's bed, watching her sleeping form. For the first time, she looked completely at peace, something even he had never seen before. Prior to her infestation, he had seen her use rifles with such effectiveness that he thought was completely impossible. During her time as the Queen of Blades, he had seen her tear terrans and Protoss to shreds with frightening effectiveness, something that chilled him to the bone.

This, however, was completely foreign to him. When he first met Kerrigan on Antiga Prime, he already saw her as a fierce warrior. He disapproved of her cold killing methods while serving under Mengsk, but the two of them shared the same dream of a liberated Koprulu sector. After New Gettysburg, he finally realized he had fallen in love with her, and mourned for days about her loss after he had formed the Raiders and escaped from Tarsonis.

But even after 4 years, he still never knew how she felt about him. Sure she valued their friendship during the days under the Sons of Korhal, but that didn't mean she loved him. There were certainly signs that she did, but she never said it to him. Not that he was given the chance to say it to her, but Sarah was a telepath and she could have picked up on his thoughts about that anyway.

Now, those feelings he had wanted to say to her all that time ago were on the verge of pouring out, but he held them in. He had to help her through the pains she endured during her time with the Zerg first. He felt guilty that he had the luxury of being a free man all these years when she had been completely enslaved.

He took her hand in his and gently squeezed. Her skin felt as soft as ever, and a part of him wanted shut out the events of all that had happened in the past weeks. He wanted to forget his revolution against Mengsk, forget the warning he received from Zeratul about the impending Armageddon, and even forget all the people who were waiting for him and his leadership. All he wanted was to be with Sarah. In fact, that part of him wanted it so badly that the rational part of him suddenly felt he really _was_ just a sap, too deeply in love with her to see reason of any kind.

However, he knew what he wanted couldn't happen just yet. The revolution with Mengsk was merely on hold, not cancelled. There were still worlds out there that need to be cleared of the Zerg infestation. And the mysterious enemy that he learned from the ihan crystal, well there's no telling what he'd be going up against in that category.

His thoughts were cast aside, however, when he felt a strange, yet familiar, feeling. And it made his heart suddenly jump to his throat.

Sarah's hand squeezed back, and her eyes suddenly opened.

"Jim..."

* * *

**Author's Note: And with this chapter, Kerrigan has finally entered the story. She and Raynor will both have quite some interesting things to be encountering soon, so don't worry about that.**

**As always, please read and review!  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: All right, I've done the story from Jim's POV, Mengsk's POV, and even the Dark Voice's POV. Now it is time to do the one POV that hasn't been touched on. This chapter marks the beginning with the picture will widen dramatically. Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

Chapter 7

**Alys'aril Nexus, Ehlna**

"It is done," Zeratul spoke in a powerful voice to a pure khaydarin crystal. "My observer has recorded proof that the terran James Raynor has defeated the Queen of Blades on Char. With this victory, the Zerg Swarm is now scattered and in disarray. Kerrigan herself has been neutralized, yet not killed, as I had warned him."

The crystal glowed brightly, as a calm, female voice spoke from it, "Then it is exactly what I had learned from the terran Jake Ramsey during the time my essence had spent within him: the terran race is more cunning and more skillful than many Protoss would admit. Jake Ramsey had only heard of this James Raynor, but you have known him personally, even fought side by side with him against the Zerg on Aiur."

"I have long valued his skills and abilities, Zamara," Zeratul replied. "He had accomplished something that I had deemed impossible, even with the aid of the Xel'Naga device. Ever since the fall of Aiur I had realized there is always more to the terrans than what they show on the surface."

"Ever since you had told me about the ancient Xel'Naga prophecy on Ulaan, I had shown a deeper interest in the Queen of Blades, despite her attempts to capture me for her own purposes," the female preserver said. "Even before what you had collected from the Overmind and encountering Tassadar again, I had suspected that she would play a role in the prophecy, though I did not expect her to become the savior of the universe."

"I find it difficult to see the Zerg in a different view," the dark templar admitted. "After so many Zerg had been slain by my own blade, it would seem incomprehensible that they are not the veil creatures we know them as."

"There is a far greater picture than either one of us know, Zeratul. What you had uncovered on Ulaan was merely another piece of the mystery. Now the time has come for both of us to understand the true purpose behind the prophecy. If I had the ability to go with you, I would gladly do so. Alas, I had used my energies and channeled them with that of this moon's nexus to save my Protoss brethren. Now the khaydarin crystal is all that I have to preserve my spirit."

"You have the power to leave your body," Zeratul pointed out. "That was how you were able transfer your spirit from to the terran Jake Ramsey when he had discovered you in the Xel'Naga temple on Nemaka. Why can you not do it again here? You had mentioned that the Khala was not meant for humans, and that was why your presence in him had begun to kill him. Surely you would find success if you transfer your spirit to a Protoss warrior."

"I certainly could, but the end result would bring further suffering amongst our people. Even if it did not, it is something I will not do. My place is here, mighty Zeratul. It is you who must carry on the task ahead."

"What do you mean?"

"The khaydarin crystal holds more than just my spirit. It also contains the spirit of the Dark Archon Ulrezaj. During the great battle on Ehlna, I had sealed him within the khaydarin crystal to prevent him from any more harm on our Protoss brethren, and even that of other terran beings. His spirit still lingers here, trapped within. It is my energies and those of this nexus that hold this barrier. If I leave this place, the barrier to his cell will weaken. If Ulrezaj grows strong from this, he could one day break the barrier altogether and escape. You know the sins he has done to our people, his intention of merely driving the Protoss refugees from Shakuras was nothing but a facade in his lust for power."

"He is a traitor to even his fellow Dark Templar brethren," Zeratul seethed. "He did more than just assassinate numerous Protoss holy preservers, he had tried to enslave our sworn Zerg enemies to do his bidding! There is no telling what he would have done had he succeeded in capturing you for his twisted schemes!"

"And that is why I must stay here, Zeratul. If Ulrezaj cannot be killed, then he must be forever imprisoned. His treachery knows no bounds and he can never be allowed to roam the Void ever again. I will be safe here in the khaydarin crystal, protected by my Dark Templar brethren. The Alys'aril Nexus has been rebuilt since the battle of Ehlna ended, and the Alysaar Dark Templars will always be by my side, fulfilling the role of the preserver."

"I still feel responsible for your safety, Zamara. Ulrezaj was far from the only one who wanted you for personal purposes. The Queen of Blades wanted the same thing, as did certain terrans, which Jake Ramsey spoke of as the Dominion."

"The Queen of Blades is gone now thanks to James Raynor's victory on Char. This Dominion has been silent for months, there has been no activity anywhere near here. The Alysaar Guardians are now much stronger than they had been when I had sealed myself in the khaydarin crystal a year ago. I will be safe, Zeratul. You, however, must take the next step and return to Aiur at once. Seek out what I had informed you about what now lies underground."

Zeratul hesitated. "I swore I would never harm another Protoss again, not after what happened to Raszagal."

"The Tal'darim are no longer the Protoss you used to know," Zamara replied. "They had been utterly corrupted by the substance known as Sundrop. This had been supplied by Ulrezaj, yet another one of his countless treacheries. Unlike your Dark Templar brethren who had no link to the Khala at all, the Tal'darim had formerly depended on its linkage, which Sundrop had severed. This could explain why their tribe became hostile to all those around them, including their own Protoss brethren, and would be the reason for their hatred of James Raynor for taking the Xel'Naga artifacts that they had protected."

"They are still my brothers," the dark prelate insisted. "The exposure to the substance does not change that. I may have agreed to come out of exile to assist regarding the threat of Armageddon, but I have caused enough Protoss deaths already."

"We all must learn from our mistakes, Zeratul," Zamara said softly. "Even now, you still blame yourself for giving away the location of Aiur to the Zerg, but you could not have known that when you slew the cerebrate Zasz. Had it been done by any other Dark Templar, they would have felt the same. You had redeemed yourself by killing further cerebrates, as well as killing the second Overmind."

"The second Overmind made a mockery of the destruction of the first on Aiur! When the first Overmind was slain, it was supposed to have been our total victory against the Zerg, not a temporary respite while another one rises in the former's place! It was I who taught Tassadar how to channel the energies of both the Void and the Khala! Since I had given the location of Aiur to the Zerg, I should have been the one to destroy the first Overmind, not him!"

"I was with Tassadar during his missions to purify the terran worlds due to Zerg infestation," Zamara pointed out. "Like yourself, I too know more about him than just as a legendary Protoss hero. The truth is, you're every bit the hero he is. The Zerg Overmind could not have been killed without the power of the Void, and that was something Tassadar could not have learned on his own. You had every bit a hand in slaying the Overmind as he did. You may not have mentioned such things when you encountered his spirit on Aiur, but Tassadar would have been proud of what you had done."

Zeratul was about to counter that argument, when Zamara continued, "In the case with Raszagal, I agree with Jake Ramsey and what he had said to you on that matter. You did not kill your leader. The Queen of Blades did that by manipulation. You said it yourself that day on Char that it was better to have her killed than remain a slave to Kerrigan. Her last request had been for you to watch over the Dark Templar people. You were her close friend and loyal follower. Honor her by fulfilling her request. If you do not, then you are not the warrior she claimed you to be.

"Think about it, Zeratul. Now that Kerrigan is no longer the Queen of Blades, she is being given the same choice you are. If she is truly human again, do you think she is not suffering from the guilt of so many deaths by her own hand? Do you think she would not regret the pain she had caused you all these years?"

Zeratul was adamant. "Why do you defend her, Zamara? You know nothing about Kerrigan before she was the Queen of Blades!"

"Neither one of us does. Even Tassadar had only encountered her briefly before she was taken by the Zerg. The only person who knows what is Kerrigan really like is James Raynor. You have encountered infested terrans during your battles with the Zerg, Zeratul. You have seen firsthand what it had done to them upon infestation. Although what had happened to Kerrigan must have been different in comparison, can you honestly say the person she was during her time with the Zerg would be exactly the same as prior to her infestation? If you cannot, then I urge you to remember what Raszagal had said when you first encountered Kerrigan on Shakuras, during the Brood War, where she had claimed reform."

Zeratul's eyes widened as Zamara spoke the exact words of his leader, _"My children, you must put aside your fears and misgivings to accomplish what must be done. For the time being, Kerrigan will assist you in your endeavors. Though she has been your enemy, it is enough that we share the same agenda now. Allow her time enough to prove herself to you, and you may find her to be a valued ally."_

"This time is different as she has returned from her infestation," Zamara continued. "You had made it clear that Kerrigan is to be the savior of all creation. The apocalyptic vision of the Overmind has provided proof what will happen if she is killed. If the threat of the hybrids is real, then all of us are fighting the same enemy. If we fail, then they will run rampant throughout the stars, and consume all light and hope."

Zeratul nodded, understanding. "I had sworn I would never allow that to happen."

"Then your part in this endeavor is not over, Zeratul. If you choose to stop fighting because the past pains have proven too much for you to bear, then that is where your ultimate failure will occur. The one thing I have learned during the time I spent in the mind of Jake Ramsey is that the terrans have a high degree of endurance. While some would shatter under the pain, others hold firm and endure, and grow stronger from it. Now you're being given the same choice. Will you crumble before the pains of your past, or will you endure and fight on to become the hero all Protoss need in times of dire?"

"If I choose the former, everyone who had died before me would have been in vain," Zeratul said with resolve.

Zamara's voice was calm, but determined. "Then you have made your choice, Zeratul. Honor those who had fallen by fighting for those who remain. In time, you will be able to forgive yourself."

Without another word Zeratul turned around and headed back to his Void Seeker. It was time he left the moon of Ehlna and returned to Aiur. He had unfinished business which he had to complete. It was time he learned more about the picture at hand, and this time, he won't be arriving alone.

* * *

**Medbay, Haven**

Jim gently stroked Sarah's hair and whispered words of comfort into her ear, trying to sooth her as the red haired woman cried into his chest. Each time a tear fell from her eyes, Jim felt his heart break for her. It's been almost an hour since she woke up, and she had been crying into him the whole time. He always thought his eyes had been cried out years ago, but Sarah always had the ability to awaken feelings in him he thought no longer existed.

Even so, he had to be strong for her. The pain he endured over the last years was nothing compared to the hell she had gone through. She was the strongest person he had ever known, but even she had breaking points. And right now, she needed him to be there for her.

"It's all right, Sarah," he whispered. "You're safe now. Nobody is going to hurt you. You're not alone anymore."

"No, they're just going to kill me on sight," Sarah whispered, sobbing into Jim.

"That's not going to happen. I won't let them."

She pulled away from him, tears still streaming down her face. "After everything I did to you, you still chose to save me."

"It wasn't you to begin with that murdered all those people. The Queen of Blades did that, and you were never her to begin with. You can't take the blame for what she did," Jim reached out and touched her cheek.

Sarah remained frightened as ever, her faith in Jim had been shaken. "You have always been one to keep your word. After Fenix's death, I remember you had clearly said you would see me dead for everyone caught between my quest for power. You swore you'd be the man to kill me."

Jim held her close to him. "All those years ago I was referring to the Queen of Blades, and she's gone now. I never swore to kill you. You were under the Zerg influence the whole time, controlled against your will. You couldn't have done anything."

The former ghost shook her head sadly. "Yes I could. I chose the coward's way out at New Gettysburg because I was terrified of my own death. All I had to do was save the last bullet in my gun for myself. I could have prevented myself from turning into a monster. Billions of people died because I didn't have the courage to do what was necessary. My cowardice turned me into a Zerg slave, and everyone paid the price."

Sarah tried to push herself away from Jim, but she hadn't fully recovered and her psionic powers had been fully drained as a precaution in the case of more unusual accidents. "I was supposed to have been stronger! Any sane person would have known the Zerg are worse than death! I had been trained to think like that ever since I've first seen the Zerg!"

Jim stroked her hair gently. "You were scared, that's all. None of us are fearless, and you know how fear plays with our judgment at times. When people get scared, it's common that they make illogical decisions. There's no exception to this, not even for you, and the others will understand that."

"You didn't see the fear in the eyes of all the people I killed!" Sarah cried. "Many of them were innocent civilians! There were women and children among them! I murdered completely defenseless people! Many of them begged for their lives, and all I did was make their deaths as slow and as painful as possible! I fed off that fear, pain, and despair! Some of them were subjected to an even worse fate by infestation!"

She wept harder into Jim's chest. "All these years has permanently defined my life by the Zerg! I'll never be the person you first met again! Everyone will see me as nothing more than the Queen of Blades with an appearance change! My reputation as the Zerg leader has been forever imprinted into their minds! They'll never forgive me for all the pain I caused! When they look at me, they'll still see the evil Zerg creature that terrorized them all these years!"

"But that wasn't you! You were being controlled the whole time!" Jim said, exasperated. "The Zerg influence was responsible for those atrocities! You had nothing to do with it!"

"More times than not I had reveled in the power the Zerg gave me! Even though deep down I knew I was a slave, I felt I was in control! I savored the satisfaction of triumph over my enemies! Some of them were my friends and I killed them without even blinking!"

Sarah continued to weep in his arms. "All those people who suffered because of me, you were supposed to have killed me back on Char! Everyone would have told you that!"

"No they wouldn't," Jim said calmly. Sarah looked up at him, suddenly confused.

"Your humanity was taken from you all those years ago, that's the reason why 8 billion people had died. If they had seen what you went through during your time with the Zerg, I'm pretty sure almost all would agree you suffered far more than they did. Do you really think they'd want you suffering to continue?"

Jim cupped her face in his hands. "When I first met you on Antiga Prime, I knew there was a good person in you. Even after you had been taken by the Zerg, I still saw the good in you. So obviously I'm not going to stop seeing that now. Don't torture yourself by grieving over all who had died because of something you didn't even do. You'll drive yourself insane if you do that."

Sarah looked into his eyes, as the tears finally stopped spilling from her own. "I can't just forget all those people, Jim. I can't just make it sound like they never died."

"I'm not asking you to forget them," Jim replied. "That's impossible, the memories will never fade. But it's about fighting for those who are still alive right now. Maybe you're right and they still see you as the evil Zerg queen that ruined their lives, maybe they haven't forgiven you for what the Queen of Blades had done. All that is quite possible, but no one can hold a grudge forever. Fight for them, and in time they'll see you differently. When that time comes, they'll forgive you."

Sarah rested her head on Jim's shoulder and wept. Jim was right, he was always right. He had been through hell himself to bring her humanity back, if she tortured herself over this grief, she'd lose it all over again, and that was something she wouldn't do. She wouldn't allow his efforts to be for nothing. She didn't have to read Jim's mind to know he too had suffered when she was the Queen of Blades, and her actions had only deepened that wound. Now, at long last, she had a chance to heal all the wounds she had caused, and that is exactly what she will do, starting with Jim.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you guys enjoyed that chapter! Unlike Qwerty-Man in "Next Steps", I felt it was wrong for Kerrigan to wake up and not remember a thing she did during her time with the Zerg, it just seemed wrong. With the Protoss finally introduced, the later chapters I plan to explain their plans in the wake of Kerrigan's defeat.**

**However, given the academic demands I have, this will more than likely be the last update you will see for the month of April. I'm sorry to all the people who have enjoyed my fic so far, but academics must come first.**

**As always, please read and review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: All right everyone, I began writing the chapter yesterday, but I eventually discovered it would end up being longer than I wanted it to be, so I decided to split it up. What you see here is the shorter half of the chapter, which the longer half still not yet written. For those of you who had read "Next Steps" by Qwerty-Man, you might want to go there and compare the chapter 8 of his fic with this chapter. You'll find some similarities, as well as some differences.**

* * *

Chapter 8

**Medbay, Haven**

Jim scowled in irritation as his comm-link went off. "Matt, did you have to call in now? Sarah just woke up, and I'm trying to comfort her."

"Trust me, I wouldn't have contacted you if it wasn't important," the captain replied. "I suggest you get to a communications console right away."

"What's going on?"

"It seems the news of our victory on Char has spread much faster than expected. Some of your Protoss buddies have caught a whiff, and they want to speak to you."

Sarah stiffened at the mention of the Protoss as she heard the conversation over the comm. All of the progress and comforting Jim had been doing for the last two hours suddenly seemed to have washed away as she resumed her frightened face.

Jim immediately noticed Sarah's change in expression and went over to her. "It's ok, I'll talk them out of it. If they choose the hostile response, my boys will protect you."

Kerrigan shook her head sadly. "There's no way you can talk them out of this one, Jim. They showed you leniency in letting the colonists get medical treatment for the Zerg virus, but they will not allow the same thing for me. I caused them enough pain and misery as it is. Don't deny them their justice."

"The Queen of Blades caused that pain," Jim countered. "They simply have to see you and her aren't the same, that's all. Let me speak to them first, we can go from there."

Sarah nodded gently, but she was not one bit convinced that Jim would have any success.

Jim slowly got up and headed towards the door, leaving Sarah to ponder in her own thoughts. As he left, he exchanged a few words with a blond woman standing outside, before walking away.

Sarah flinched slightly as the blond woman entered her room. She didn't need to see her silver hostile environment suit to know this woman was a ghost, she could tell right away by her high psionic signature.

"Don't be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you. Jim felt other people in his Raiders should try and get to know you," the blond ghost said softly. "I'm Nova Terra, former top assassin of the Dominion."

"Former?" Sarah asked.

"Jim told me about Tarsonis," Nova explained. "He told me about how you protested against Mengsk from using psi emitters to kill the Confederacy, as well as how he had abandoned you at New Gettysburg to the Zerg."

Sarah cringed at those memories. Despite Jim's insistence that it wasn't her fault for what had happened, being reminded of the events again remained painful to her. And then those feelings suddenly turned into anger. It was Mengsk who did this to her. All he had to do was send some dropships down there for evacuation and she would never have become the Queen of Blades to begin with.

"You may not know this, but Jim did try to save you," Nova continued. "After he had broken away from Mengsk, he went back down to New Gettysburg. But by then it had been too late, he claimed no trace of you was found there. He mourned for days for your loss, and jumped at the first sign that you might still be alive when he began experiencing the strange dreams."

Sarah looked down sadly. "And I shattered them completely when he saw what I had become."

Nova sat down by her bed. "Jim always said there is good in you. I may not know a damn thing about Zerg infestation, but I do know how it feels to be controlled against your own will. I had neural inhibitors implanted in my just like every other Dominion ghost. All it takes is a press of a button and I would become a mindless drone. I've done things I'm not quite proud of."

Sarah laughed bitterly, startling Nova. "I've murdered billions of people without even blinking. I'm sure your actions were nowhere near anything of that scale."

"And now you have the chance to make it right. There are plenty of those who still believe you're under the Zerg influence—"

"And I wouldn't blame them one bit for thinking that," Sarah finished.

"So prove them wrong," Nova insisted. "After I had seen Mengsk's atrocities of what he did, I turned away from the Dominion and joined the Raiders. None of them trusted me, but I still fought by their side and exposed Mengsk for what he really is. Jim freed me by removing the neural inhibitors shortly after that, but to the rest of his crew, all that did was allow them to give me somewhat of the benefit of the doubt. Even now, after I had fought by them during the Char invasion, not all of them fully trust me."

The blond ghost looked at Sarah in the eye and continued, "The atrocities committed while you were under the Zerg influence were obviously far greater in scale, but the concept remains exactly the same: fight alongside those with good intentions, and eventually they'll learn to trust you. That's what I'm doing and that is something you should do when you recover."

Sarah looked away, remembering that Jim had said similarly to her. Despite the fact she was not one bit convinced about forgiveness or trust, it's obvious there's nothing she wanted more. "Do you think they'll ever forgive me?"

"What's important is that you have to forgive yourself," Nova pointed out. "The only knowledge I have of you before you were taken by the Zerg was your legend in the ghost program. There's been some records of you I've seen during the days of the Sons of Korhal, but I've only _really_ seen you as the Queen of Blades. It's only now that I finally get to know what you're really like, and I can already tell you're nothing like that Zerg monster."

"Tell that to everyone else," the red head said bitterly. "When you see how few of them believe you—"

"And that's why it is vital you fight alongside them," Nova explained. "Obviously in your case it's going to take a lot longer before you earn their trust, but it's still possible nonetheless. Do you think Jim would want you to wallow in your own pity forever?"

Seeing Sarah slowly shake her head, Nova continued, "If you won't do it for yourself, do it for him. During the weeks I had fought alongside him, I had noticed something different about him."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"

"During my time with the Dominion, the video records when Mengsk was still leader of the Sons of Korhal were never erased. I had seen footages of their actions against the Confederacy. The records also contained footage of Jim fighting alongside the Dominion emperor."

"Tell me something I don't know," Sarah folded her arms.

"The footages showed something in Jim's eyes, like some sort of fire in them that showed nothing could stop him from accomplishing his goal. Mengsk had been using that as the basis to broadcast his lies to the media for the last few years, insisting that he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted."

"That's partially true," Sarah replied. "Back then, he and I were fighting to get rid of the Confederacy and restore freedom to the Koprulu sector. It had been both our dreams."

"When I joined the Raiders and saw him up close, what I was seeing was the eyes of an animated corpse. He didn't look anything like the freedom fighter Matt Horner told me he is. All I saw was a broken man, his mentality shattered by something taken from him that he felt he would never get back. He even told me his sense of justice and freedom died out years ago, and all he had left to keep him going was his vengeance on Mengsk."

Sarah felt her eyes water up again. She had no idea just how badly Jim had suffered, and still is suffering, from the time she had been with the Zerg. She knew he had changed from when they first met on Antiga Prime, but she hadn't expected how much she meant to him.

"After his encounter with you on Tyrador VIII, his depression suddenly worsened. He began drinking more than his crew had experienced him do over the years. Even after Matt had told him the Raiders needed his leadership, there was little improvement to his mood. At that point, it confirmed exactly what I had been suspecting all along: that 'something' that had been taken from him was you."

Sarah felt like she had just been stabbed through the heart. Jim was the most decent man she had ever known, and had treated her with far greater kindness in a few minutes than anyone else has in her entire life. Now, after all these years she had spent with the Zerg, he was starting to turn into another one of those heartless people she had known during her days with the Confederacy.

"All that changed when Valerian came to us. When he explained that the Xel'Naga relic Jim had been collecting might be able to restore you, I immediately saw the fire in his eyes again. Even when everyone told him that this alliance with the Dominion is a trap and attacking Char is utter suicide, it did not sway him one bit. He may have told us that the Zerg was a greater threat than Mengsk, but just about everyone on the ship knew he wanted to return to Char because he wanted you back. Even when Valerian warned him the chances are just as high the artifact could end up killing you, he continued to insist it was worth the risk."

Nova looked away for a moment before continuing, "Just about all his crew members were glad the commander they had been waiting on was back, but unfortunately that's only for the Char invasion. The victory on Char may have been significant, but it's still just a step forward like any other. The Raiders need Jim's leadership, but I've been told he hasn't been the same man since when the Raiders were formed. Trying to get him to move on proved useless, and it was clear to most people that he could never let you go. Now that you're finally back, he needs you more than ever. If what people say about this destructive path he's taking is true, you're the only one who can pull him out of it."

Sarah nodded, finally understanding. When she was serving under the Confederacy, she saw humanity around her as selfish, arrogant, and despicable. It was little different when she joined the Sons of Korhal. During that time, she had much hatred buried in her for humanity for their characteristics.

Only when Jim entered her life did she see there was still good in humanity. Although she did accuse him of being a complete pig for his thoughts when first meeting her on Antiga Prime, those feelings eventually changed. She saw him who fought for everything that was dear to him, no matter what the cost. She saw he was willing to make sacrifices that others she had known wouldn't have even considered. When she told him shortly after arriving at New Gettysburg that she didn't need saving, that wasn't a lie. He had already saved her from falling into total cold heartedness after her brutal past. When she had been taken by the Zerg and prayed for rescue, while she would have welcomed any type, she knew only one man would be able to make that happen. She knew Jim would be that pillar of hope. And when she felt herself being carried out across the Char battlefield, finally free from the Zerg after so long, the joy of seeing Jim as her savior once again would have made her heart burst from her chest, had she not been so badly weakened by the Xel'Naga artifact.

But she had seen so many selfless acts by Jim that she had completely forgotten that he was human just like everyone else. He too had breaking points and endurance limits. She hadn't counted on Jim's love for her. Although she knew the feelings he had for her were much deeper than she had expected, she didn't expect it to reach the point where he couldn't imagine his life without her. While she did hope Jim would get her out of the nightmare as the Queen of Blades, it was under the assumption it was just another selfless decision he made so others would benefit from it.

If what Nova said is true, then Jim didn't come to Char to stop the Zerg invasion, or even to save lives. He put the lives of all of his Raiders at risk just for her. To Sarah, that is the greatest act in kindness she had ever known in human history. She knew each act of kindness came with a cost, but for Jim to lose hope, for him to become desensitized to war, for him to succumb to heartlessness, that was the one price she could not allow him to pay. She'd pull him out of cold reality that he had been drowning in all these years. This time, she'd be _his_ savior.

"I'll bring the old Jim back," she said, at last regaining her determination. "I owe him everything."

Nova smiled. "Then I'm glad we have reached an understanding, Sarah. Our war with the Zerg is far from over, and we've got something far worse coming, something more powerful than the Zerg and Protoss combined together."

Seeing the expression on Sarah's face suddenly shift back into fear, Nova raised her eyebrow in confusion. "Was it something I said?"

* * *

**Author's Note: With this chapter, it marks the beginning of the character relationship between Kerrigan and Nova. Unlike Qwerty-Man however, I felt it was wrong to have them start off by beating each other to death in the sparring room (there were times I always wondered if they really WOULD have killed each other if Raynor hadn't stepped in).**

**As always, please read and review!  
**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: Since the last chapter was only the shorter half, I felt it was wrong to have left you guys hanging that way. So, here is now the longer half of the chapter, which was why I had split it up into two chapters instead.**

**I hope you guys enjoy it!**

**Please read and review!**

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Chapter 9

**Haven**

Jim smiled as he saw another familiar Protoss face appear on the communications screen. "En Taro Tassadar, James Raynor. Our observers had recorded your victory over the Queen of Blades on Char. This victory has had a significant increase in moral among my people, as well as deliver a shattering blow to the Zerg Swarm. It is clear we still have much to learn from you terrans."

"En Taro Tassadar, Artanis," Jim greeted the Protoss Hierarch. "It's been quite a while since the last time we stood against the Zerg, though something tells me you didn't call just to congratulate me."

"You are correct, my friend," Artanis replied. "Your victory on Char has merely sent the Zerg into disarray. Given enough time, they will recover."

"Don't worry, I still have the tool to defeat them should that happen."

"You speak of the mysterious Xel'Naga relic you used to defeat the Queen of Blades?"

"The very one, Artanis. It's still on board my ship, though it's been disassembled back down to fragments like when I first found them. I've learned the device could kill Protoss as well, so maybe as fragments they'd be less dangerous to you. Besides, you're creations of the Xel'Naga yourselves, so obviously you'd have a much better chance of knowing what the relic really is."

"We will see to it when the time comes. I hoped to speak to you regarding the next steps in the wake of this victory."

Jim frowned. "Are you now going to have Kerrigan stand trial and be executed for what she's done?"

Artanis shook his head. "Zeratul has already told us of his sojourn: his discovery of the Xel'Naga prophecy on Ulaan, his battle against the hybrid on Zhakul, his encounter with Tassadar on Aiur, as well as the apocalyptic vision of the future seen by the Overmind."

"Do you believe it?"

"There are many who are skeptical about the prophecy. Others believe Tassadar had been corrupted by the Overmind. Very few could believe that the Queen of Blades will be the one to save us all, and there are virtually none who believe the Zerg were not always the vicious beasts we have fought against for so long."

"You're not the only one. Zeratul showed me the same thing he told you in an ihan crystal he gave me. After fighting the Zerg all these years, being told that they could have once been a noble species is just unthinkable to me. It's hard to see there was ever any good in them, so I don't blame so many of you for not believing it."

"Many feel we should pay no heed to this and focus our intentions elsewhere. There are plenty who want to see the former Queen of Blades executed for her actions against our people."

"True, but I know you, Artanis. Tassadar is more than just a hero of the Protoss to you, he was also your mentor. Do _you_ believe he has been corrupted by the Overmind?"

"He is among the strongest Protoss ever known," Artanis said. "I am not convinced he could succumb so easily. For that matter, the prophecy cannot be ignored. While there are many skeptics, most admit that aside from the Xel'Naga shrines on Ulaan, the only being that seems to hold further clues about the prophecy is the Overmind itself. Therefore, the only way to know more is to return to its desiccated remains on Aiur."

"I thought Zeratul already got all the information he needed during his visit."

"Most of our homeworld is now devoid of Protoss. The small force Zeratul was able to gather was only able to hold off the Zerg forces there for a short period of time. He was thus unable to extract all of the information necessary before being forced to depart Aiur to avoid being overrun. Now Zeratul wishes to return in force to rid the site of Zerg infestation, and to learn more about the prophecy."

"That would seem to tie in well with your plans," Jim pointed out. "I'm sure a lot of Protoss would love the chance to see Tassadar again."

"It is more than that, my friend. During his visit, Zeratul had witnessed that almost all the Zerg legions during the initial invasion have evacuated the planet. The only ones that remain are the considerable number of defenders nestled around the rotting mass of the Overmind itself. With the Queen of Blades gone, the Zerg are now leaderless and divided. Thus the time has come to reclaim Aiur. As we speak, my brethren are mustering their forces on Shakuras. Once we have taken back our homeworld, we can then focus on the prophecy at hand."

"What does this have to do with me?"

"He specifically requested to meet you on Aiur, as well as Kerrigan."

Jim nodded. "It will still have to be a while. Kerrigan hasn't even begun to recover yet from the Xel'Naga artifact's effect. I am helping her here on Haven until she does."

"Very well, friend Raynor. We will be waiting for you on Aiur when you are ready. I have made it clear to my brethren that the former Queen of Blades is to remain alive for now."

Jim frowned deeply. "For now?"

"She has committed countless crimes and atrocities against our kind. She may be needed to stop the apocalypse, but once that is avoided, she will be held accountable for what she had done."

Jim clenched his fists angrily. "There is still good in her, Artanis. I will not allow you to have her executed once she's served your purpose."

"My friend, I would like to remind you of every crime and atrocity she had committed during the last 4 years. The loss of lives is so great that it is impossible to depict an accurate number. Have you forgotten about the death of Fenix and our matriarch Raszagal? Or of all the terran lives she had taken in her insatiable lust for power?"

"She was taken by the Zerg and infested against her will. She didn't choose to become the Queen of Blades. She now has the chance to make up for what she had done in the past."

Artanis sighed. "Friend Raynor, history and experience among the terrans has taught the Protoss that your species has a flawed judge of character. You may still have feelings for Kerrigan, but she has proven herself to be a threat to all living things. Her appearance may no longer resemble the Zerg creature we had fought against, but we should still expect nothing but deception and treachery from her."

Jim was about to counter that when the Hierarch continued, "Fenix and I had fought together for some 200 years, and Kerrigan murdered him in cold blood with satisfaction. She had forced Zeratul to murder his own matriarch, and took sadistic pleasure in doing so. Raszagal's last request was for Zeratul to take her place and watch over her tribe, but he deemed himself unworthy of the task and went into exile. That is the reason why I had been given the position of Hierarch of the Protoss Protectorate."

Artanis paused for a moment, before continuing, "There is much mistrust among my brethren regarding me. They feel I am far too young to lead the people. All over Shakuras, the tensions remain regarding the sects. Most of the Dark Templar tribes are still uneasy about the presence of the Khalai Protoss on this world, as it was we who had banished them from Aiur to begin with. When news spread that Zeratul had went into exile and I was chosen for the position of leadership of both sects, there was utter outrage among the Dark Templar. Following the Brood War, there had been many cases of assassination of Khalai Protoss as the Nerazims feel we are once again usurping power, and plan to exile them from Shakuras just as we had done so on Aiur. The incidents may have declined with the Zerg invasion, but now that the Queen of Blades has been incapacitated, all will be demanding justice be carried out against her."

Jim was about to defend Kerrigan again when a voice suddenly cut him off.

"It's ok, Jim."

He whirled around to see Sarah stumble into the room, an arm slung around Nova as she still didn't have the strength to walk under her own strength. Immediately, he hurried over to help Sarah regain her balance.

"I tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted this was the only way," Nova explained.

"Sarah, what are you doing here?" Jim asked softly.

Tears flowed from Sarah's face. "You can't defend me against this. And I can't ask you to speak on my behalf. I have to speak to them face to face. Please, let me do it."

Jim was just about to object when Nova shook her head. "Jim, let her speak. She already said she wasn't leaving until she does, so don't make this any harder than it already is."

Jim sighed and gestured Sarah towards the communications console. "Go ahead, Sarah."

Sarah took a deep breath, mustering up whatever courage she still had left, before speaking in a soft voice, "Artanis, what I did to you and your people was unforgivable. During the Brood War, I killed your closest friend, and forced your own kind to kill your leader. Zeratul trusted me that I had changed, at last freed from the Overmind's control, and I betrayed that trust with actions that have forever scarred your race. There is no Protoss alive today who wouldn't demand my death for all the suffering and grieve I've caused to your people, and I know none of you will believe anything I say given my previous treachery. When I first met you and Zeratul on Shakuras claiming reform, you said the Protoss cannot be expected to forgive me for what I did to your people, and you were right. I know nothing I do now will change that, so I will do what I must in the events ahead. Once I have done my part, do what you want to me, I won't try to stop you."

Jim was just about to intervene when she suddenly turned to him. "Jim, promise me you won't defend me. No matter what justice they deem fit, promise me you won't interfere with it."

Artanis looked on at the former Queen of Blades. She was indeed very different from how he pictured her to be. Truth be told, he had been expecting an arrogant terran, still deeming herself as powerful as she was when she was with the Zerg. Instead, he saw a completely shattered and heartbroken woman, her body still carrying the scars of the infestation, her face looking like she had just been through hell, terrified beyond belief, and already resigned to her fate.

Still, it could all just be an act to soften his view on her. If the Xel'Naga artifact had worked the way it was supposed to, then by now Kerrigan has been fully stripped of the power she once possessed when she was the Queen of Blades. She had to be smart enough to know she is now much weaker. But the one thing he wasn't sure of was the mentality. Was her mind human again? Or is the murderous nature still there? During the years he had fought the Zerg, he had known that despite their vast numbers, they are far from mere cannon fodder. Rather, they had proven themselves to be very intelligent creatures in combat. If the advantage of overwhelming numbers is insufficient to prevail in battle, then they will rely on deception instead.

If Kerrigan's murderous nature is still in her mind and she has been stripped of her powers, it was entirely possible she's putting on this show to get him to lower his guard, then betray him again the moment she is able to acquire her powers back. Most of his Protoss brethren would agree that is exactly she is trying to do, but he suddenly remembered what Zeratul had told him when he had been working alongside Kerrigan to acquire the Uraj crystal on Khyrador, now known as the terran world of Braxis.

They had been unable to leave the planet immediately due to a terran force known as the UED. Back then, he was arrogant in thinking the terrans were powerless against the Protoss, as it was they who defeated the Overmind. But Zeratul informed him that this was done with terran assistance, and that they should not be underestimated.

Since then, Artanis had learned there is usually more to terrans than what meets the eye, although he was still distrustful of them. He had been especially distrustful of female terrans given Kerrigan's nature, but that had somewhat changed ever since his encounter with the terran Rosemary Dahl. She had proved to him there are more trustworthy terrans out there, and she had convinced him to launch a rescue mission to save the life of the terran Jake Ramsey, who happened to be carrying the spirit of Zamara, a Protoss preserver.

The difference, however, was that Rosemary Dahl fully human, and there is no proof that Kerrigan currently is. Dahl had been suffering from the effects of the Protoss substance known as Sundrop, but while excessive usage would have rendered it fatal to her, it is completely different in comparison the Zerg virus used for infestation.

Thus Artanis is hesitating on whether he should confide in his former enemy or not. The last thing he wanted to do is make the same deadly mistake twice.

Jim noticed the Hierarch's silence and spoke into the screen, "Artanis, I know how you feel about Sarah and what she did. But you have to look at it this way: you've only known her as the Queen of Blades. None of you know what she was like before that, I do."

"It still does not change the fact your feelings for the former Queen of Blades is affecting your judgment, my friend."

"Are you so caught up in your desire to seek retribution that you refuse to even consider maybe this time she's telling the truth?" Jim asked. "You told me that shortly after Kerrigan met you on Shakuras, Raszagal asked you to give her the benefit of the doubt."

Artanis's eyes darkened dangerously. "We did, we trusted her and look what happened! She took our matriarch and turned her into her personal slave! She used Raszagal to manipulate all of us for her personal ascension to power!"

Sarah lowered her head in guilt. The longer Jim and Artanis debated over this, the more anguished she became of what she had done, what she had become. If it weren't for her promise to help Jim, by now she'd have completely lost the will to live.

Jim, however, was refusing to budge. "Raszagal was right about one thing though: we're all in this together now. She had said for you to give Sarah enough time to prove herself to you, and she might become your ally."

"And she did not become an ally at all!" Artanis shot back.

"She was still under the Zerg influence," Jim pointed out. "The Overmind's death didn't change that. Now the influence is gone, and you have the opportunity to see what Sarah's really like. Are you not even going to give her that chance?"

"She could still be deceiving us in another grab for power."

An idea then struck to Jim. "Artanis, you and I had fought side by side on Braxis against the infested terran known as Alexi Stukov. You asked me to help you restore him by using the nanotech serum developed which would reverse the infestation effect. During that time, you said it yourself that infested terrans did not have free will of their own."

Jim then pointed to Sarah. "If you truly believed that, then who's to say the same isn't true for Sarah's infestation?"

"According to the prophecy, she is supposed to be the savior of the universe. Therefore, it would be logical that her infestation is different compared to others."

"It doesn't matter what type of an infestation it is," Jim countered. "An infestation is an infestation, plain and simple. You told me that human behavior prior to infestation is nothing like the way they act after they've been infested. So what makes you think Sarah will act the same way she did when she was the Queen of Blades?"

"You do not know she is truly human again, friend Raynor. Her appearance may have changed, but that does not mean she no longer possesses the murderous nature she once had."

Jim was getting exasperated. "All right, fine. But the one thing you and I can agree on is that the prophecy that says she is to be the universe's savior cannot be ignored. Therefore, until the time comes where she has to do her part, there is still an opportunity time window."

Artanis nodded, immediately understanding what Raynor was implying. "You believe Kerrigan has changed for the better, and will use this window to prove it to all of us."

"She is a good person, Artanis. I've known there was good in her even when she was the Queen of Blades. Give her one last benefit of the doubt, and let her prove herself to you. I'm not asking you to forgive her for what she's done. I simply hope that if she is able to prove herself, you will at least consider the possibility she is truly a different person now."

The Protoss Hierarch turned his head to Kerrigan. "Friend Raynor is correct in that none of us know what you are like before you became the Queen of Blades, young Kerrigan. He strongly believes in you, even after your actions of betrayal to him. After the deaths of Fenix and Raszagal, trusting you again would seem to be unthinkable. However, if the prophecy is indeed true, then it would appear we have no alternative. But regardless, we will not stand for your treachery ever again. If friend Raynor is correct about you, perhaps in time we will show leniency for your actions. Otherwise, we shall be the end of you, prophecy or not."

Sarah nodded gently. "I will never harm another Protoss again, you've all suffered too much because of me. I will do everything in my power to make up for all I have done to you, even if it takes me the rest of my life."

This seemed to finally satisfy Artanis, as he turned his view back to Jim. "We will now turn our attention to reclaiming Aiur. Join us there when Kerrigan recovers. En Taro Tassadar, my friend."

"En Taro Tassadar, Artanis." Jim bid farewell to his friend and turned off the communicator screen.

He then turned to Sarah with a sad look on his face. "Sarah, why did you say that to him? You know I'd never stand by and let them execute you."

Kerrigan broke down sobbing as she collapsed into Jim's arms. "Jim, promise me! Promise me if they choose that sentence, you won't defend me from it! It's their rightful justice! Don't deny them that!"

"It won't come to that, Sarah," Jim said softly, stroking her red hair. "I know they'll learn to trust you in time."

Sarah, however, did not back down. "Promise me, Jim," she whispered. "You don't know what they'll really do once I've done my part. You've never broken your promises, so promise me this time."

Jim sighed. Sarah was thoroughly convinced once she has played her part in this prophecy, the Protoss will kill her. Trying to convince her otherwise is pointless right now.

"I promise, Sarah. If it comes down to that, I'll keep my word," he whispered into her ear, as Sarah continued to weep into his chest. He may have always been one to keep his promises, but for the first time, he found himself at one which may be an exception.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: This next chapter is a little bit shorter compared to the others, but unless you look carefully, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. This chapter signals the end of tranquality, and the beginning of war in this fic.**

**Hope you guys enjoy it!**

**Please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter 10

**Raiders Base, Haven**

Within a week, Sarah had recovered from the effects of the Xel'Naga artifact on Char. Jim knew the only way to earn people's trust again is for her to go back into the field and fight, but a part of him was also terrified, just like what had happened when she went down to Tarsonis alone. Back then at least the decision was out of his hands, and he could blame Mengsk. This time, the decision lies in his hands, and if something happened, he would have to live with the guilt that he could have stopped it.

Nevertheless, he knew what had to be done. He told Sarah that to find redemption, she had to fight for the living. When they had fought side by side against the Zerg during their days under the Sons of Korhal, both of them knew right away the fate of terrans unfortunate enough to be caught by them, and subjected to infestation. Although he felt it would never happen to him, the fact remains he was scared it would, as that would be a fate worse than death. When he saw Sarah reborn as the Queen of Blades, it was every bit as horrifying. But after so many years of war, Jim had also learned that there is no such thing as a risk-free battle. The only difference with the Zerg is that it's better to wind up dead than infested. For that reason, he made very few objections when Sarah told him she wanted to go back into the field to fight the Zerg again.

Sarah was still unwilling to admit to she was never the Queen of Blades to begin with, much to Jim's disappointment, but she did explain that during the time she spent with the Zerg, the swarm had continued to grow and evolve. A few aspects of their evolution she had a personal hand in, and had evolved them somewhat differently than what would have been, the main ones being the Queens and Overlords.

Both of these Zerg creatures were now more intelligent than before, rather than constantly relying on their cerebrates for orders and near incapable of independent thought. While the Overlord's ability to excrete creep was part of the normal evolutionary chain, the Overseer was not. Sarah explained that due to fighting the Protoss and terrans for so long, she had continuously tried incorporate their psionic powers into individual Zerg units. Most of the time, this was met with little success, but she had succeeded in creating the Changeling, a tiny Zerg creature carried by the Overseer. It has shape-shifting abilities to transform itself to look like a human being, but that tends to drain an enormous amount of its power and can only be sustained for a few minutes. The same is true for its shape-shifting abilities for combat, so Kerrigan did not employ them for such a role. Instead, it is used to confuse the enemy, as it had the ability to create a psionic impression. After Jim consulted Nova about this, the blond ghost confirmed this to be similar to the psychic attack ability she possessed, used to attack the mind of an opponent. In contrast, the psionic impression is used to confuse terrans into thinking the situation is less dire than it actually is, though this strategy is very ineffective against terran ghosts, as they are also trained in sensing psionics. Even so, the Overseers still required a small degree of guidance, and Sarah was unsure if they could still deploy the Changelings to such effectiveness now that the Queen of Blades is gone.

With regards to the Queens, it's an entirely different story. Sarah explained that she evolved them differently from merely being supporting the Zerg like the Overmind did. Because of so much human DNA at the Zerg's disposal, she had tried to incorporate them into the Queens. Since some of the human DNA came from military officers and marines, the Zerg mutation had allowed the Queens to gain combat effectiveness, as well as the ability for command roles at specific Zerg nests. Sarah went on to say because some of the DNA came from human females, the Queens gained the characteristics of the human reproductive system and had the ability to inject their own blood into the hatcheries, allowing them to produce larvae at an accelerated rate. Although this temporarily weakens the Queen, it is compensated by the absurd healing rate that all Zerg possess. Finally, because of the terran medics assimilated into the swarm, the Queen also gained the ability to use its own power to heal friendly Zerg units or structures nearby, though at a severe cost in their energy strength.

Jim, however, still had concerns about the special Queens. According to marine reports from Char in assaulting the Nydus Network, there was an encounter with a Zerg Queen that was vastly more powerful than the ones encountered on Char's surface. Apparently it had ability to pop Zerg eggs, which released infested terrans, as well as a psionic shockwave which was capable of knocking back infantrymen and incapacitating them for a period of time. Sarah revealed that she had worked hard to incorporate Protoss psionic powers into the swarm, but almost all of them proved unsuccessful. There were virtually no Zerg units with the willpower to control it, and in such cases it resulted in their deaths. The Queen was the only strain that theoretically could after the changes in its evolution, but even that proved to be difficult as most lost control of the powers and had to be forcibly put down. Sarah explained that it became clear to her that the high level psionic powers the Protoss possessed was still too far out of her reach, and she had to settle for the lower level ones. The psionic shockwave ability from the Queen that Jim told her about was a modification of the psionic blast ability Protoss Zealots possess, although without the Khala most Queens ended up killing themselves when using this power. The ones that were lucky enough to survive, however, became vast improvements over the original, and Kerrigan had been trying to create more of these special Queens ever since.

For that reason, Jim felt Sarah's knowledge of the Zerg would be essential when they deal with the infestation on Agria, and had convinced Dr. Hanson to allow the Raiders the use of the construction yards for such an offensive. Ariel knows the planet better than anyone, and he felt this would present a great opportunity for Sarah to finally begin playing her part.

Jim pressed a button on the communicator console. "Matt, how is the build-up coming along?"

"Still a ways to go, sir," came the reply. "After the appalling losses on Char, the fleet is in no position for offensive operations for a while."

"This isn't a huge one, Matt. All we're doing for the time being is cleaning out the infestation on Agria."

"And then we'd have to come right back here to continue the build-up. We have enough to deal with Agria, but I thought we agreed on trying to clean them out of other worlds as well."

"We will, but that will be on your part," Jim answered. "Once we're done on Agria, I'm heading off to Aiur."

"I'm not sure how Kerrigan will take this, sir. Mengsk may have been the one to abandon her on Tarsonis, but it still doesn't change the fact the Zerg were the ones that turned her into the Queen of Blades. Your Protoss buddy may have requested you and her to be there, but I'm not sure how she'd react when she sees the very thing that infested her all those years ago."

Jim sighed. "It's not some recreation trip to the Overmind's corpse, Matt. We need to know more about the picture at hand. Even if we focus on Mengsk right now, you know as well as I do that sooner or later we need to turn our attention to this Xel'Naga prophecy. Sarah is the key to it all, and we need to understand what the Overmind's intentions were for her. Besides, if Zeratul's ihan crystal is accurate, Tassadar should still be alive down there. Given what I saw during their encounter, it seems likely that he has been exploring the Overmind's memories for the last few years. Therefore, if anyone could know the greater picture, it's him."

"I just don't want to see Kerrigan go into a killing rage when she's at the site, sir. Last thing we need is for her to do something crazy and stupid, and get infested again."

"Why do you think I've had her and Nova train each other near the construction yards for the past few days? Short of the infestation, the two of them are quite alike. I'd say they're perfect match in fighting."

"You sure know how to pick the trainers," Matt said sarcastically. "I'm not sure putting them together is smart. Nova has been trying to surpass Kerrigan long before she joined our Raiders, and I wouldn't be one bit surprised if Sarah felt you got yourself a new girl."

"You're being naïve. Nova already knows how I feel about Sarah after the risks done to get her back, and Sarah knows during her time with the Zerg, she had given me 4 years to move on to find someone else. Since I didn't, I'm sure she's smart enough to know it's not going to happen now."

Matt decided it was pointless to argue further. "How long do you think Kerrigan is fully ready to go back out to the field?"

"I doubt it'd be too long. Right now I'm just having Nova train her in fighting skills again. Both of them are expert martial artists, but it's not like you come across fighting Zerg with hand to hand combat. That'd be utter insanity. Sarah may have done plenty of hand to hand fighting during the years she spent with the Zerg, but since she no longer has the Queen of Blades body, I'm having Nova refresh her fighting in her normal body."

"She also hasn't touched a gun in 4 years," Matt pointed out. "She didn't need one as the Queen of Blades."

"Nova is capable of hitting a target between the eyes at over 100 yards away with just a regular marine gauss rifle," Jim scoffed. "When I fought with Sarah under the Sons of Korhal, I've seen her snipe Dominion marines with her rifle at almost a mile away with no problem whatsoever. The new sniper rifle data Nova gave us after dealing with Tosh shows these new models have accuracies up to 5000 meters away if handled by a competent operative, and both of them are more than capable for the job. Give Sarah a week or so to train with Nova, and the ghost training she had will come back to her."

"You really think Nova can benefit from her? I know there are cases in the Dominion where ghost operatives themselves train people to become ghosts later, but the power gap here is much bigger than what we're used to dealing with. Kerrigan's psionic abilities are so high I doubt she even knows how it'd feel like to be average."

"We've already taken the steps necessary to compensate a little for the gap difference, Matt. Sarah can help her in that aspect as time passes and Nova becomes stronger."

"I still question your action to do such a thing," Matt said. "You're a little too trusting of Nova. I know she reminded you of Kerrigan, but not everyone on the ship trusts her yet. She may no longer be a Dominion slave anymore but she's been trained to protect terran lives under all circumstances."

Jim snorted. "Just because Mengsk is willing to go to any lengths to make that happen doesn't mean everyone else shares his perspective. He's not going to have the power to turn _everyone_ in his empire into mindless slaves. His cronies may be loyal to him, but even they have moral standards."

At this point, a new face appeared on the screen. "Jim, will you be ready to take back Agria soon?"

"Don't worry, Ariel. In a few more days once Nova and Sarah's training is complete, I promise we'll move out to get your world back. If the construction yards were better equipped for industrial purposes, we'd have been ready days ago."

"It's ok, Jim," Dr. Hanson replied. "It's better to do it right and make sure Agria is fully secure. Last thing I want is another outbreak from Zerg infestation."

"Doc, I have a favor to ask of you," Jim said. "I know once we've cleared out the planet, your people will want to go home. But it is my hope that you would stay on the Hyperion with the Raiders, unless you think it is essential your people need you on Agria."

"They don't," Ariel replied. "But why?"

"After we go to Aiur to learn more about the prophecy, the next step is either to immediately turn our attention back to Mengsk, or deal with the being that was described in the ihan crystal. Your scientific knowledge would be a great help to us in that aspect."

Ariel nodded slowly. "I'm not sure what I can do though. According to you, not even your Protoss buddies seem to know anything about this new threat."

"You learned plenty about the Xel'Naga artifact in just a few weeks," Jim pointed out. "You're a fast learner, Doc. Still, just as I had asked you regarding about looking for a cure for the Zerg virus, all I ask now is for you to do what you can."

* * *

**Castanar System**

General Ridgeway was horrified by what he saw on screen, as the Dominion dropships unloaded their occupants right outside the Castanar installation. He knew Mengsk wanted to capture the hybrid no matter what, but he hadn't expected him to resort to the usage of another type of hybrid to do the job.

Immediately he pressed the button to the communicator console. The emperor's face appeared on screen, as confident as ever. "General, your reinforcements have arrived. I trust you'll use them effectively to subdue the hybrid."

"Sir, you can't be serious!" Ridgeway protested. "I thought Project Gestalt had been scrapped months ago!"

"Officially yes," Mengsk replied. "Most of the Dominion records will indicate its destruction almost 2 years prior. The reality, however, is somewhat different."

"Sir, you saw what had happened to Dr. Stanley Burgess when he created them! He thought he had created the perfect solider to combat the Zerg, but all he ended up creating was just another threat to the Dominion!"

"I understand that, General."

"Then why did you deliver gestalt soldiers here? Dr. Burgess thought they'd obey his will, but Gestalt Zero succeeded in overcoming the neural inhibitors in him and allied himself with the Protoss!"

"Burgess didn't understand the entire process had to be done from scratch," the emperor replied. "The ghosts he used were regular human beings, and their minds proved unable to cope with the spliced Protoss abilities. While most of the project was destroyed, some of the samples remain. From there, my scientists have succeeded in combining them with the DNA of Dominion ghosts, and all it took was a matter of cloning a human ghost specimen, and splice the abilities in that way. As cloned ghosts alone they're not very effective because cloning psionic potential is something that is still a long way from being perfected, but once you add in the Protoss powers, it's a different story. Their psionic power on the psi-index is still somewhat below my expectations, but they are nevertheless far more powerful than the ghosts we have at our disposal."

Ridgeway watched as the gestalts marched into the installation, still deeply worried. "You're confident they'll succeed?"

"Well your boys have done a pitiful job so far," Mengsk spat. "I'll take my chances with these gestalt clones. If they succeed, it'll be proof I have special uses for them."

"And if not, sir?"

"The clones here aren't all of them, general. The secret labs I still have are cloning more of them as we speak. So far more than 2700 of them have been completed, ready to be brought online on my command. If the 25 here can't do the job, I'll just keep sending in more until they do."

* * *

**Dominion Lab Complex, Castanar**

Gestalt 104 opened his communicator to the Dominion emperor as his squad matched down the devastated corridors. "Sir, we have visual confirmation of the hybrid."

"Good, 104. Given its healing abilities, I'd imagine killing it will pose a problem, but since the order is only to subdue, it should be a walk in the park for you."

"Gestalt units, ready your weapons!" Gestalt 104 ignited his psonic blade on his right arm, as did the other gestalts. By now, the hybrid has noticed their presence and is charging towards them.

"I have complete confidence in you and your squad," Mengsk said. "I know you will make me proud."

"We will not fail you," Gestalt 104 said, before shutting off the comm, as the hybrid roared in anger.

One by one, the gestalts pulled their gauss rifles from their backs and opened fire on the abomination.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: All right everyone, although this is against my better judgment, the recent reviewer of Swedish0spartans wanted me to update right away.**

**I will honor this request, but just be aware that there will be no further updates for the remainder of the week. This chapter will begin to shift the picture to tell more than just Raynor and Kerrigan's relationship, but they will still play their central roles in the future chapters.**

**As always, please read and review!**

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Chapter 11

**Protoss Fleet, High Orbit Over Aiur**

"Hierarch Artanis," announced a Templar. "Zeratul's Void Seeker has joined the fleet."

"Very well," Artanis replied. "Open a channel to him immediately."

"En Taro Tassadar, Artanis," Zeratul spoke. "It is good to see the rest of my brothers have taken the initiative in the reclamation of Aiur following the Queen of Blades's defeat on Char."

"We are honored by your presence among the Protoss once more, Prelate Zeratul. In moments, our fleet will be ready to enter Aiur's atmosphere. Have there been any signs of unusual activity of the Zerg on our world?

Zeratul shook his head. "During my brief visit, I had uncovered the data recorded by the few functional observers that chose to remain behind since the evacuation. Although over 5 billion Zerg remain on our homeworld after the Brood War, it would appear that after James Raynor had begun his assault on Char, Kerrigan recalled much of them to the fiery planet to quell the invasion. While the observers detect that there is still almost 2 billion that have remained, they are nevertheless much weaker and more thinly spread."

"Hierarch, we have Zerg attack waves incoming!" exclaimed a nearby Templar.

"On screen!" Artanis ordered.

The display showed exactly what had been expected: thousands upon thousands of Mutalisks, Corruptors, and Scourges were flying up towards the command Mothership.

"Admiral Urun, Executor Selendis, unleash the power of your Phoenixes and Carriers!"

The golden ships of the Phoenix Fleet opened up with their ion cannons, and the Interceptors poured out of the Carriers. Within minutes, the sky was filled with roar of battle. Hundreds of Zerg flyers were being shot out of the sky every minute, but more flyers simply took their place, still heading for the command Mothership.

"They're swarming at our flanks!" Artanis exclaimed. "Launch the Scouts!"

Hundreds of Scout fighters poured through each individual Mothership, their anti-matter missile launchers already blazing. Most of the Scourges were shot down as they were ineffective against smaller ships, but Corruptors continued to pour through the gaps.

"Hierarch, initiate the Time Bomb and slow them down!" Zeratul urged.

The flanking Motherships glowed for a moment, before giant transparent bubbles fell over the Protoss ships. Within them, the Corruptor attacks immediately slowed, making them easy prey for the Scouts and Carriers.

From the command Mothership, Artanis began channeling his psionic energy into the vessel. As the bubbles disappeared from the other Motherships, they began to do similarly.

"Prepare yourselves, my brethren!" Zeratul announced. "We are about to warp down to the surface of our homeworld! Slay all Zerg creatures that oppose us!"

Within moments, the first of what will be many Mass Recalls have been completed. Artanis watched from above as thousands of Protoss warriors were on the battlefield, greeted by an equal number of Zerg ground forces. The cries of battle could be heard everywhere, as the psionic and war blades Zealots and Dark Templar slices through the carapace of Zerglings. As they fell by the hundreds, dozens of them began morphing into Banelings, knowing that their suicide role will take many Protoss with them.

However, by now the first of many Colossi have also been brought down to the battlefield, and the power of their thermal lances had been unleashed. Most of the Banelings were unable to complete their chrysalis phase before being fried by them, those that did were carefully slain by Dark Templar, piercing their bellies to prevent the volatile burst of highly concentrated acid.

Roaches were brought up to reinforce the defense, but only a few were able to get within acid firing range of the Zealots before sliced apart by Dark Templar warp blades. More and more Roaches tried to rush in to overwhelm the Dark Templar, knowing that many of them would be sacrifice as their foes possessed the invisibility of cloaking and they cannot detect them. Overseers had been moving towards the battle, but the prismatic beams of Mohandar's Void Rays had sizzled most of them before they could get within detection range.

"We must cut through the Zerg air defenses immediately! The Motherships are low on energy to continue the Mass Recalls!" Artanis urged from his Mothership. "Admiral Urun, proceed down to the planet's surface to assist Prelate Mohandar! We must locate and eradicate their hatcheries!"

Thousands of Observers had already been deployed groundside to record the battles and provide tactical data to the ground forces, but more and more of them were being shot down as spore crawlers were moving within range, their accelerated movement assisted by the creep excretion from the Overlords and Creep Tumors from the Queens.

The air threat remained as Scouts were being shot out of the sky by the Corruptors, their fighting abilities weakened by Urun's departure. Although Selendis's carriers were still holding their own against them, one by one the Motherships were forced to cease their Mass Recall abilities and open fire with their purifier beams against the incoming waves of Mutalisks. The older Corsairs were deployed to combat the incoming threat, but their Neutron Flare attacks were only designed to assist Protoss air fighters, not replace them. Although dozens of Mutalisks were shot down, more took their place and headed for Artanis's ship.

"Hierarch, we have located Zerg hive cluster that has been supplying the air units to combat the fleet!" Mohandar announced.

"Eradicate it immediately!" Artanis ordered. "We must gain a foothold on Aiur!"

Without another word Mohandar ordered his Void Rays to unleash their prismatic beams at the Zerg structures, while the Phoenix ships held off any Mutalisks and Corruptors. One by one, the Zerg buildings succumbed to the Void Rays, and from high above Aiur, Artanis saw the Zerg air power began to weaken.

"Corsairs! Deploy to the surface of Aiur to assist our ground forces!" the Hierarch ordered.

By now, the Zerglings, Roaches, and Hydralisks were starting to hold their ground against the waves of Zealots, Dark Templars, and Immortals. In a last defiant gesture to deny the Protoss a foothold, hundreds of Brood Lords have arrived at the battle scene, their broodling attacks greatly weakening the assault. Although Stalkers have been sent down to deal with them, the broodling attacks have kept them occupied while other Zerg forces picked them off.

The ground trembled beneath the Protoss warriors, before giant Nydus Worms popped up from beneath. As their biological mouths opened, Ultralisks began pouring out of them. Together with the Brood Lords, the Protoss assault began to sputter out.

The psionic blades of the Zealots were no match for the thick carapace of the behemoths, who simply trampled over them. Although the thermal lance attacks from the Colossi slowed them down, they nevertheless continued to advance. The Colossi attacks began to slacken as they came within attack range of the Brood Lords, and while the Stalkers were able to destroy hundreds of their broodlings, few were able to get within particle disruptor range of the Brood Lords themselves before being swarmed by Zerglings.

Zerg Infestors were also starting to arrive at the battlefield. To compensate for the Zealot's charge attack which significantly increased their movement speed, dozens of Infestors unleashed their Fungal Growth ability, as Zealots, Stalkers, and Immortals were immediately immobilized, and then instantly pelted by Hydralisk needle spines. The High Templars on the battlefield began casting psionic storms as the sky crackled electric blue. As the Zerg advanced, hundreds of Roaches and Hydralisks were dying from its power.

However, the Ultralisks rushed forward, providing a biological shield for the other Zerg as their hardened skin strong were enough to withstand a storm and keep fighting. The Infestors remained behind, many of them now releasing swarm eggs, each of them hatching an infested marine, the unfortunate victims of the Zerg during their battle against them on Aiur. The Templars continued to cast psionic storms to pick the Infestors off, but they simply borrowed under the earth to avoid them.

"Slay them all!" Admiral Urun shouted, as his Phoenix Fleet returned to the battle scene. The newly arrived Infestors were suddenly yanked from the ground by gravitation beams. Suspended in midair, they were defenseless as Stalkers picked them off.

Suddenly, the Ultralisks were stopped dead in their tracks as a white bubble of energy surrounded them. They roared in anger, but none could break through. The Protoss warriors looked up to see hundreds of Corsair fighters unleash the power of their disruption webs, as all Zerg units unfortunate enough to get caught within it were trapped.

By now, the Mohandar's Void Rays had also returned, and unable to move, the Ultralisks were incinerated where they stood by them. With the heavy assault support gone, the Colossi renewed their efforts against the Hydralisks who desperately tried to shoot the Void Rays out of the sky to protect the Brood Lords.

"Away, veil creatures!" A commanding voice shouted. Within seconds, the skies were filled with robotic interceptors. With the Zerg air support greatly weakened, Selendis's carrier fleet has descended down to the surface. Like a swarm of locusts, the interceptors poured out of their Carriers and descended on the Zerg. Most of the Hydralisks were torn apart before they could even get within range of the Void Rays, as the latter picked off the Brood Lords. With Protoss air superiority, the Zerglings and Roaches were being annihilated at ease on the ground. Although Hydralisks continued to pour in, the relentless attacks from the air was ensuring that many of them were unable to get in firing range of the Carriers. The remaining Mutalisks and Corruptors tried to break through, but with the air reinforcements reduced to a trickle, more and more of them were being shot out of the sky by Scouts, Phoenixes, and Corsairs.

Finally realizing the battle has been lost, the remaining Zerg forces withdrew in disarray.

"It is done," Zeratul announced from his Void Seeker. "With this victory, we have gained a foothold on our homeworld. Now the 2nd phase must begin, as the remaining Zerg shall be mustering their forces to expel us from this planet once more."

"From what we have collected from the Observers, it would appear the Zerg are concentrating in two areas," Artanis announced. "One is our capital of Antioch, and the other is at the final resting place of the Overmind itself."

"If that is true, then they will be weak in other sectors of the planet," Selendis observed. "We should claim such sectors as soon as we can, so that we have greater staging points to assemble our forces in the greater coming offensives."

"Very well, executor. Our next step will then will be to push towards Scion province and eradicate the Zerg there."

"You must do this without me," Zeratul said slowly. "I have matters of my own to which I must seek in an enigmatic location on Aiur. Once I have sought that out, I will join you in retaking the rest of our world."

Artanis nodded, before opening a channel to the rest of the Protoss. "My friends, we have done well today. Despite the casualties we have suffered, we have been able to establish a forward position. But make no mistake: despite the fact the Zerg swarm is now leaderless, they remain every bit as dangerous. They will stop at nothing to see us forced off this world once more. By defeating the Queen of Blades, James Raynor had given us our greatest opportunity to take Aiur back, so we must use it to our advantage. We will rid the Zerg infestation of our world once and for all, or die in the attempt."

* * *

**Dominion Lab Complex, Castanar**

Gestalt 112 ducked from another swipe from the hybrid's claws. While the damage they had inflicted had been much greater compared to the previous attempts in subduing the creature, the overall situation remained unfavorable to them.

Of the 25 gestalt soldiers sent for the mission, 6 were dead, 3 injured, and 5 more had been temporarily incapacitated by the hybrid's slime attacks, unable to move. He and the remaining gestalts have been using their fragmentation grenades to distract the hybrid from killing the ones still recovering from the slime, but the majority of them have been used up by now, and they have done nothing but anger the hybrid further.

Sure, their psionic blades where able to pierce the creature's carapace, but the incredible Zerg regenerative abilities meant that unless this was exploited within seconds, it'll simply heal right back up. They had tried piercing it in different places, trying to locate a spot that was weaker than the others, but so far the only one is located at the hybrid's neck.

Despite the fact the creature wasn't very smart, it was intelligent enough to keep that part of itself better protected compared to other parts. Clearly it understood that was where it was most vulnerable. To make things worse, it was able to use the tendrils and tentacles on the back of its head and its entire rear in melee combat.

Now, he was falling back with the other gestalts, carrying one of their wounded on his shoulder, whilst firing his gauss rifle at the hybrid. While this was had no effect on the creature it terms of damage, it nevertheless was distracting it.

On his right, Gestalt 104 was dragging the other two wounded down the corridor, while the remaining gestalts continued to provide firing support for them.

"We're not going to be able to keep this up much longer!" Gestalt 112 shouted over the fire.

"Fall back to the lab room immediately!" Gestalt 107 shouted back. "The rest of our squad should be almost recovered from that thing's slime by now, we just have to lure the monster to the room!"

The gestalts continued to provide fire support for one another, but the hybrid had clearly had enough. With a roar, it charged forward and unleashed a blast of assimilating energy, instantly killing two gestalts, while knocking the rest back. Most did not get a chance to get up before the hybrid was on them, where they met a most painful death. Only Gestalts 104, 107, and 112 were left, running for their lives towards the lab room, as the hybrid stayed behind to feed on its prey.

Once they sealed the lab room days, they breathed a sigh of relief. The 5 other gestalts were glad to see them, but were also filled with dread, knowing they were all that made it.

"What do we do now?" asked Gestalt 112, looking at the incapacitated gestalts. "There's only 8 of us left, and that lab door can't last forever."

Gestalt 104 touched his comm-link. "Sir, we're going to need reinforcements. My squad is holed up in a lab room with the hybrid banging on the door outside. We can't last very long."

"Can you keep the creature where it is?" Mengsk's voice came over the intercom.

"Wherever there's something for it to feed on, it's determined to get. But the door can't keep it out indefinitely. I'd give it maybe an hour before it breaks in here."

"I've got more dropships arriving. This time I'm bringing a whole company. If you can keep the hybrid where it is, you'll be getting reinforcements within the hour."

* * *

**Construction Yards, Haven**

"You're doing great, Nova!"

Sarah beamed at the former Dominion ghost as she practiced her telekinesis abilities with her at the construction yards. Jim had already informed her that while the Protoss are off to get their homeworld back, they'll turn their attention to clearing the Zerg from other worlds. The Raiders still aren't strong enough to take on the Dominion, but with every world liberated from the Zerg, it improves the chances of them gaining more allies. The hope was that once the Protoss had cleared Aiur of the Zerg, they will aid the Raiders with their endeavors. For now, they would start by clearing Agria.

The former Confederate ghost felt obligated to go there and clear it personally. It was during this week of recovery that she had been treated by Dr. Hanson. Although the doctor was unable to remove the remaining Zerg blood in her, she nevertheless ran tests to make sure they would do no harm to her. For Kerrigan, it was a great relief to know that the tests had confirmed there wasn't enough Zerg left to infest her again, and she felt the least she could do in return was help get Ariel's world back.

After refreshing her shooting skills at the firing range, she had Nova had run obstacle courses together. While a few of the pop up targets had Dominion faces on them, the vast majority of them had Zerg instead. Jim felt she had to overcome her fear of being infested again, and until she faces the Zerg head on, this was the best way.

His efforts had paid off quite well. Under Nova's training, Sarah had regained her sharpshooting skills within a few days, and her hand to hand combat abilities remained as strong as ever. The obstacle courses she had trained in had rapidly turned her fear of infestation into determination for killing those who turned her into a monster.

Nova panted heavily as she telepathically set the siege tank back on the ground, relieved for what Jim had done. Even before Sarah had been de-infested, he had seen the similarities between the two ghosts, and knew that she too shared his dream of a liberated Koprulu sector. As such, he felt she should be free of all forms of enslavement. After they had left Char, Jim had revealed to her that during the 4 years he had been fighting the Dominion and before the Science Vessels were taken out of commission, his Raiders had gained access to the old ghost program files.

She had been surprised when Sarah told her there was a way to reverse the hypnotic effect that limited a ghost's psionic powers. Sarah explained that after she became the Queen of Blades, she had raided a Science Vessel called The Amerigo and acquired the same thing. The files were intended to restore psionic abilities if a ghost's mind was damaged, but by working backwards, it could unlock the full potential of one's mind. Kerrigan went on to say that this was the reason why since then, her mind's psionic abilities had just kept growing in power.

Apparently, Jim trusted her so much that shortly after arriving on Haven, he had given Nova access to the files. With Sarah's help, Nova was also able to undo the conditioning, allowing her mind to be fully freed. While she was grateful for Jim freeing her like that, she couldn't help but notice a lot of the Raiders were a little uncomfortable with another powerful psionic individual walking around the ship.

Jim had tried to assure them that he was just taking their precautions, since they still don't fully trust Kerrigan. While there were still a few on the ship uneasy about her, Nova knew that by now she had earned the trust of most of the Raiders. Thus Jim used the logical excuse of saying if Sarah went crazy again, unlocking Nova's mind would give them the best chance of stopping her given her immense psionic potential.

Of course, during the days following, Nova learned even fully released, her psionic abilities were still nowhere near that of Sarah's. For starters, she couldn't cast psionic storms like Kerrigan could. Sarah assured her that's actually not a bad thing. From her time in fighting the Protoss, she had quickly learned that they followed some sort of religion called the Khala. While it grants an immense amount of psionic energy, it also requires discipline to control the higher powers, like the psionic storm. Without it, the storms can only be controlled by sheer willpower alone, something she had learned the hard way when she first encountered Zeratul on Char. If the willpower fails, it was entirely possible for the storm to harm potential allies. Although Nova was slightly jealous at such a power Kerrigan had over her, Sarah informed her that such power comes at a cost, and she would have traded all her psionic powers in a heartbeat if it freed her from the Zerg influence. For Nova, this was a clear sign that her years of competing against Kerrigan had been misplaced. Sarah never wanted the spotlight to begin with, she never wanted to be special. She just wanted a regular life.

As Nova stood there catching her breath, she suddenly felt guilty for the luxuries she had been given in comparison, and had not realized until now. If what Jim told her about what he had uncovered in the ihan crystal was true, Sarah's path had already been chosen for her long before she even existed. She had been manipulated by the Confederacy, by Mengsk, and then the Zerg. And now, after all the efforts to bring her back and restart her life anew, destiny had chosen her for an even grander role.

"Are you ok, Nova?" Sarah asked, coming over to her.

"I'm fine, I've just been thinking about clearing out the Zerg from Agria, that's all," Nova lied.

Kerrigan sighed, as she and Nova sat down on a nearby bench. "I know that look on your face. I've seen it enough times to know it's a feeling of guilt without having to probe a guy's head. Just tell me what's on your mind."

Nova hesitated, before deciding there's nothing she could say that the red head couldn't understand. "I just realized being the best isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"You can say that again."

"I mean, I was the top Dominion ghost. I had thought during that time I would be humanity's heroine, securing a place for our survival. But all I got was mission after mission of assassination targets. Now that I look back, I wonder just how many more people did I have to kill to keep humanity safe."

"You're far from the only one," Sarah pointed out. "When I was part of the Confederacy, I too arrogantly thought I'd get such a status, and all I got was horrible experiments done on me when they played with Zerg specimens."

"But I have it easier than you," Nova countered. "I realize that now. I originally wanted to be special, but now I see there are times where it's better to be the expendable pawn. This new threat we eventually have to deal with, you're the key. We all have the luxury of getting ourselves killed and escaping the madness, but you have to fight on. Like you I'm afraid to die, but it's still better than being condemned to suffer the burden of watching everyone around you die and you cannot."

Sarah closed her eyes painfully, clenching her fists in frustration, as her psionic powers flared up. Not realizing it, she telekinetically lifted a nearby Vulture and flipped it onto its back. "I've been cursed, Nova. Jim showed me the visions of Zeratul's memories from the ihan crystal. I had honestly thought that after Jim saved me on Char, I was finally free from slavery, finally free to choose my own path. Instead, I just got another burden forced on my shoulders. I'm forever doomed to be a slave. I already lost everyone close to me when I was the Queen of Blades, and now I have to lose the ones I got back because of this. It's all clear now that I'm meant to be miserable forever."

Suddenly, she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. "That will never happen as long as I'm alive, Sarah."

She turned around to see Jim standing behind them. Nova knew this was a signal that they needed some alone time, so she immediately got up and walked away.

Jim waited until Nova had disappeared into a construction yard warehouse, before turning to Sarah again. "There is no such thing as something that is written in stone that can accurately portray the future."

"You saw it yourself," Kerrigan said miserably. "You saw what Zeratul found on the shrines at Ulaan. It is my destiny."

"We are who we choose to be," Jim said softly. "Because of that, the future can never be fixed."

"How can you be sure of it?" Sarah's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Because we all choose our own destinies and futures. No one has the power to choose it for us. No matter what the circumstances, no one has the power to make us lose all measure of control."

Sarah rested her head on Jim's chest as he stroked her shiny hair. "We all have our parts to play in the upcoming battles ahead. Even if you're the key to it all, you won't have to face it alone. We too must decide to fight on or not, and you know my decision."

"I just don't want to make another mistake like before again," Sarah said quietly. "You suffered far too much than you should have when I had been taken by the Zerg."

"We all must learn from our past actions, Sarah. You had been a broken woman when you woke up, but since then I had seen your determination and resolve come back. You wanted to fight to make up for your past. If you believe we'll make it through this in one piece, I know it's true."

Jim looked over to the flipped over Vulture. "I can see your psionic powers are as strong as ever. I'm glad you and Nova weren't training at the Thor building section."

"Are we going to be heading out soon?" Sarah asked.

The commander nodded. "Matt will remain here with the Hyperion to continue to look over the fleet build-up. I'm going with General Warfield on the Helios, we'll be leaving in two days. I hope you're prepared."

"I've recovered, Jim," Sarah said, gripping her C-10 Canister Rifle tightly. "You said it yourself the first step in atonement is to fight for those who died. I'm ready."


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: All right everyone. As promised, the next chapter is here. The battle on Aiur will also play its role in this story, that is why this chapter will focus on that as well as Kerrigan's redemption.**

**As always, please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter 12

**Outskirts of Scion Province, Aiur**

"To arms, my brethren!" Selendis ordered, as the swarms of Zerg poured out from Scion province and headed towards them. While it was not as heavily defended as Antioch or the Overmind's final resting site, the number of defenders there nevertheless numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

Interceptor after interceptor flew out of the Carrier hangar bays, and at a frightening speed, the frontal wave of the Zerg attack force was decimated. Zerglings fell by the hundreds, as the Roaches burrowed underground to avoid incoming fire. The Hydralisks tried to shoot down as many of them as they could, but more and more interceptors simply filled their ranks as others retreated.

"Mohandar, position your Void Rays immediately!" Artanis ordered from his command Mothership. "Do not allow the Zerg to attack our flanks!"

Protoss Void Rays opened fire with their prismatic beams, as the attacking Ultralisks continued to charge at the Protoss ground warriors. Some were able to make it through the gauntlet and engage the Zealots, but others were sizzled by the Void Rays and the supporting Colossi.

On the ground, thousands of Immortals were moving as fast as they could towards the province, but they were continuously held up by determined resistance from the Zerglings. The Zerg were indeed very quick learners. During the initial landings they had found out that the hardened shields of the Immortals do not activate against light attacks, and this was why they were able to survive the Ultralisks. This time, no attempt will be made by heavy units to attack them.

"Templars! Release your storm powers!" Mohandar shouted from his Void Ray.

Instantly, the skies above crackled with blue lighting. Zerg after Zerg rushed in, and most were killed. However, the Roaches that were moving beneath the ground survived, and they began to pop up from behind the Templars. With their fighting abilities sacrificed to better perfect the powers of the Khala, they were easy targets.

From above, the Scouts once again opened up with their photon blasters. As Roaches had no defense against aerial opponents, many of them were forced to fall back. The Templars advanced again, but more were killed by spikes rising from the ground beneath them.

"Bring the Observers forward immediately!" Selendis ordered. "Mohandar, eradicate the airborne Zerg!"

With the help of Scouts and Corsairs, Zerg Overlords and Overseers were shot out of the sky with shocking effectiveness. The Void Rays provided cover for them against the attacking Corruptors, and while the swarms of Mutalisks fared somewhat better, the fact that their glaive wurm attacks had only minimal range brought them into firing range of Stalkers and Sentries. Nevertheless, they continued to rush in hoping to overwhelm them.

As the Observers finally got within detection range, the towering Colossi opened up with their thermal lances. The Zerg Lurkers who mistakenly thought they were safe were mostly incinerated where they were, while others un-burrowed and crawled away, only to have their escape routes cut off by the force fields generated by the Sentries. With no offensive capabilities above ground, they fell victim to the Sentries' disruption beams.

By now, swarms of Banelings were charging towards the Colossi. The Immortals and Stalkers destroyed as many as they could from a distance, but there were simply too many. The Colossi too recognized what was happening and tried to pick them off from long range, but enough got through and smashed into their slender golden legs. The giant machines toppled to the ground, crushing Zealots and High Templars in the process, as all the while the Interceptors swarmed overhead, trying to provide an umbrella cover for their ground brethren.

As the Protoss continued to move ever closer to Scion, they began to come into contact with the Zerg creep more and more frequently. The Scouts did what they could to destroy the Creep Tumors, but the Zerg had laid a carpet of them towards every approach to the city. With the benefit of increased movement speed on the creep, the Zealots and Dark Templars were coming into contact with Queens. The Protoss warriors soon learned the new Zerg breeds were vastly more powerful than what they had encountered years ago, as their claws tore many of them apart.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Every Protoss knew what this meant: Nydus Worm transports were coming. Within moments, their suspicions had been confirmed. Worm after worm popped up from the ground, their mouths ready to open to unleash entire legions of Zerg upon them.

But all of a sudden, they were wrapped in giant white bubbles of energy. As the Protoss warriors looked up, they cheered as waves of Corsairs flew overhead. Immediately, Void Rays unleashed their prismatic beams on the hapless targets. When the disruption webs dissipated, all of the biological transports were a blazing ruin.

"Their worms are gone!" Mohandar announced. "Bring in the Warp Prisms!"

The dozens of the new generation shuttles flew forward, many of them immediately transforming into their phasing mode as a mobile psionic matrix. While some were shot down by Spore Crawlers moving into firing range, the survivors completed the transformation.

Within seconds, their psionic matrix abilities were used to maximum effect, as Stalkers, Immortals, and Colossi warped in from under their field. Because the Warp Prisms were immobile in this mode and has no defensive abilities, many of the Stalkers remained behind to defend them against Hydralisks and Mutalisks that successfully ran the gauntlet against the Interceptors and Scouts, as they surged across the battlefield to destroy the Protoss transports.

"Templars, Sentries, protect those transports!" Selendis commanded from her Carrier above. "Our reinforcements must get through!"

Some Templars continued to cast storms against the incoming Zerg. By now however, without being given a minute's respite, many were running dangerously low on energy, even with the assistance of their Khaydarin Amulets. As a result, the protective storms began to slacken, as Zerglings and Roaches poured through the gaps, assisted by the Queens.

With so many Queens fighting at the front, the Zerg attacks began to increase in ferocity. Now that the Protoss warriors were fighting on the creep themselves, the Queens could move with frightening speed to assist fellow Zerg in need. Of particular frustration to the Zealots and Immortals was their transfusion ability, which instantly pumped life into Zerg creatures that were near death at a small cost of energy to them.

Some of the High Templar that still had energy moved forward to assist, but many were killed Brood Lords patrolling above. The ones that remained unleashed their feedback ability, draining the Queens' energy to prevent the accelerated healing process to nearby Zerg, as Sentry units moved forward to defend the Templars from the broodling attacks.

More and more Sentries were warped in from the Warp Prisms, but most were forced to stay back to defend the transports as Ultralisks overtook the defending Zealots. Although Mohandar's Void Rays were keeping most of the behemoths from getting close, enough were slipping the net to force many of the reinforcements to defend the Warp Prisms. Some of the Corsairs continued to summon disruption webs to block them off, but with too many Ultralisks coming from too many different directions, this was taking a toll on their energy levels.

In the air, Mutalisks were being shot down by the hundreds by the Scouts, but the more durable Corruptors were able to get within range and spray them with a form of corrosive slime. This weakened the armor of the Scout ships, making them easier targets for the legions of Scourge that swarmed into them. Many were shot down by Interceptors, but the ones that got through downed one Scout after another. The Carrier pilots were now getting nervous, as the Observers had only detected moderate Zerg air units in Scion, and thus Urun's Phoenix Fleet was directed elsewhere. In desperation, the Corsairs were once again used as replacement Scouts while more were launched from the Motherships in high orbit above Aiur.

The ground forces were in a better position. Enough Sentries were able to join up with the frontal Protoss warriors, and together with the Zealots and Dark Templar, they were concentrating on destroying the Creep Tumors. While this inevitably put many of them within detection range of Spore Crawlers, the Zerg structures were not meant to survive if the creep beneath them is removed. As such, many of them were forced to lift themselves up and fall back. The Zerg Queens continued to provide support as they retreated, but by now many of them were wasting their efforts on hallucinations casted by the Sentries, distracting them as the real Protoss warriors continued to wreak havoc at their ground defenses. With the Spore Crawlers out of detection range, the Dark Templars were able to get up close to the Spine Crawlers and cut them to pieces. All the while, Overseers desperately tried to move within detection range, running the gauntlet of Stalkers that blinked back and forth to rapidly get within firing position to protect the Dark Templars.

One by one, the Overseers were being shot out of the sky, but others began to spawn Changelings. While not as powerful as the Broodlings from the Brood Lords, they nevertheless continued to harass the Stalkers, forcing them to divert their attention away from the Overseers.

This left the Dark Templars in a more vulnerable position, as they became detected by the Overseers. By now, most of the Spine Crawlers had been destroyed, but Zerglings and Roaches began to overwhelm them. The supporting Sentries tried to create as many hallucinations as they could, but there were so many Zerg that it made little difference.

"We must push on towards the province!" Selendis exclaimed. "Corsairs, destroy those Overseers!"

Once again, the outdated Corsairs vanished above the heads of the Protoss ground warriors and engaged the Zerg flyers with their Neutron Flares. While the damage is minor, it nevertheless drew the attention of the Mutalisks, as dozens of them rained down upon the Protoss ships. The Carrier Interceptors once again swarmed in, and within minutes the airborne Zerg had succumbed to the Protoss flyers.

"Executor Selendis, the Zerg are retreating!" a Templar declared, as more and more ground units reported the Zerg were falling back into the city.

"Well done, my brethren!" the executor said. "The paths leading to Scion are ours again. Now it is time to reclaim the province itself. What is the concentration of Zerg in the city?"

"Impossible to tell. All of our Observers have been shot down by Spore Colonies. It is clear that their anti-air defenses are very strong."

"Not strong enough against the might of the Protoss! We will remain here for now to gather our strength as our reinforcements arrive. Tomorrow, we shall cleanse the Zerg from Scion once and for all."

Mohandar was sending orders from his Void Ray to the Sentries on the ground. "Protect the remaining Warp Prisms at all costs. The Zerg are just as sneaky as they are ruthless. We have lost many valuable prisms today. We cannot allow the Zerg to stem the flow of our warriors to the battlefield."

* * *

**Raiders Fleet, High Orbit Over Agria**

Jim watched from the bridge of the Helios as the rest of the fleet joined them in high orbit above Agria. Orbital scans have indicated that while the Zerg on the planet's surface were no longer expanding across the planet, there's no sign of them giving up any territory either. Sarah had explained that when it became clear the race to the Xel'Naga artifacts had been lost, she had lost interest in attacking all over the sector. Without the order for further offensives or expansions, the Zerg simply reverted to a standby phase, defending themselves from attackers, but do nothing more until a new order is issued.

Now that she was no longer infested, Sarah speculated that it's entirely possible that all the worlds the Zerg had invaded will be awaiting further orders from the Queen of Blades. If none come and no hostile invaders arrive, they'd probably remain passive.

Warfield felt if that was true, then they could take their time to plan for the retaking of the planet. He had already agreed to Dr. Hanson's request not to use nuclear strikes against the Zerg. While the colony had been overrun, orbital scans had indicated that the Zerg had little interest regarding the botanical and wildlife preserves. The same was true of the colonist huts and buildings, as they were not living creatures and thus there was no use for them. Although many of the domes, huts, and other buildings had been infested by the Zerg creep, enough remained that the Zerg seemed to have ignored. The buildings are no longer operable as the colony's power grid had been damaged during the Zerg invasion, but if power could be restored, they could still provide the bare bones of living and settlement. Ariel felt this would be the best starting point for her people to return home once the Zerg had been cleared, and Warfield was inclined to agree.

Marines, Firebats, and Marauders were already being loaded onto the Medvac dropships, hundreds of them ready to be launched from the battlecruisers upon receiving the order. Sarah and Nova had a Medvac that stood out somewhat from the others, as it was needed to be sign to allied forces that it was carrying special cargo. Jim ordered such special Medvac have different engines compared to the standard ones, as they're too loud and would alert the Zerg too soon in the case of covert missions. Nova had wanted to use an orbital drop just like she had in helping Jim against Tosh on Avernus Station, but he recommended against that as the drop pods could hold much less people in comparison.

It's not that Jim didn't believe in Nova's capabilities, especially now that her psionic power's full potential had been unlocked, but the one thing the Zerg usually has on their side is quantity. As he had learned after fighting the Zerg for so long, individual strength alone isn't what's important, it's being too heavily outnumbered. And unlike the new soldiers the terrans possess, the Zerg creatures become vicious killers upon birth.

As this was not a covert mission, he had ordered marine, firebat, and marauder escorts for the two ghosts, much to their annoyance. Neither one of them were too used to fighting on the frontline, and Nova felt they'd end up being a liability problem. Jim wasn't one bit surprised by this. With so much special talents of their own, ghosts tend to treat the low leveled infantrymen with greater arrogance for having no talents at all. Nevertheless Sarah had convinced her that it was necessary for such escorts, and that Jim was just looking out for her safety.

While Warfield believes clearing the Zerg out shouldn't be much of a problem, Jim couldn't help but think back to the visions seen in the ihan crystal Zeratul had given him. The 2nd vision had clearly shown a hybrid that enslaved the preservers and enslaved their guardian tribe, while the last vision had shown the entire Zerg swarm being enslaved by such monstrosities. Although the last vision was still years into the future, it had shown the presence of thousands of these hybrids. Although he didn't know if they had already awakened or not, the last thing he wanted was to discover a hybrid had come down to Agria and taken control of the Zerg there.

For Raynor, staying on the bridge was something of great reluctance. Warfield wanted to be on the frontline himself, fighting with his soldiers, but he too remained on the bridge of the Helios. In Jim's case however, it was entirely different. He continued to suffer the fear of something happening to Sarah just like what had happened on Tarsonis, and it shook him to the core. Nova had already promised him that she'd keep her safe, but in war there's no assurances of anything.

"Raynor, it's time," General Warfield said, snapping him out of his thoughts. "The battlecruisers are descending to low orbit over the planet as we speak, ready to launch the dropships for deployment."

Suddenly, the general alarm sounded. Apparently low orbit was considered enough by Zerg standards as territorial invasion, as hundreds of Mutalisks and Corruptors were flying up to greet them.

"All laser batteries open fire on the flyers!" Warfield ordered. "Tear them apart!"

Some of the battlecruisers opened up with plasma torpedo attacks. As most of the Zerg flyers were grouped closely together in believing they can get in close enough before Yamato Cannon strikes, many of them were incinerated by the new discharge.

However, the Zerg were quick adaptors. Immediately the flyers began to spread apart, forcing the battlecruisers to disperse their fire. With so many attacks from so many different flanks, many of them began reporting heavy damage to their hulls, while others suffered system failure and plummeted to the surface. Jim ordered the ships to concentrate their fire on the Corruptors, who had begun spraying the capital ships with a form of corrosive slime that weakened their armor.

"Deploy the Vikings immediately!" Warfield ordered, as thousands of Scourges were picked up on the scanners. "Don't let them close to the battlecruisers!"

Within minutes, hundreds of the mechanical hybrids flew out of the launch bays, their lanzer torpedoes tearing apart the tiny Zerg flyers. Enraged, more and more Mutalisks veered off their course for the battlecruisers and headed straight for their new targets. But due to their low attack range, many were shredded before they had a chance to launch their glaive wurm spores.

But once again, the Zerg's overwhelming numbers played their role in the battle. More and more Mutalisks simply filled their ranks, as one by one the Vikings began reporting power loss to their systems. The ones still unscathed were fighting hard, but many of them were forced to withdraw to the hangars due to shortage of ammunition. This left the Mutalisks free to turn their attention back to the battlecruisers, much to Warfield's frustration. Wraiths were deployed to assist in the air battle, but they were not as effective as the Vikings and many of them were unable to last as long when they were under Corruptor attack.

Fortunately for them, the orbital scans for the Zerg infestation on Agria proved to be accurate. Because no Xel'Naga artifacts had been found on Agria and that it's only a small farming colony, the Zerg made little attempt to reinforce their positions on the planet once it had been overrun. As such, the scans indicated that aerial Zerg numbers were relatively small compared to the ground units. With hundreds of Mutalisks and Corruptors being shot out of the sky every minute, the flyers were dwindling faster than the Zerg expected. They had recognized this, and had begun to pull back to the planet's surface.

"We've driven them off, well done boys," Warfield announced. "But that was just the easy part. Now we have to drive the Zerg off the planet."

Jim pressed a button on the communicator console. "Escort the dropships down to the planet's surface, and do it carefully this time! Last thing we need is another catastrophe like on Char!"

Luckily, there were no more Zerg flyers to oppose them this time. From the orbital scans, it would appear that they had all pulled back to their main hive cluster on the planet. Although numbering in the hundreds of thousands, this was considered relatively small by Zerg standards. As such, all of the dropships were able to safely land on Agria, and all their cargo unloaded without a hitch.

* * *

**Surface of Agria**

Sarah looked out of the dropship's window in anticipation. She was on Agria with Nova and the squads of marines, firebats, and marauders Jim had assigned to them for protection. After so long, she was fighting as a ghost again, against the Zerg. Although after training with Nova at the firing range had removed most of her fear for them, a deep part of her still wished she had talked Jim out of the escorts.

She understood the need for protection given the prophecy, but she had enough blood on her hands already as the Queen of Blades. The last thing she wanted was another encounter like that where she ended up hurting her allies. To that end, she wanted to go out there alone, but Jim pointed out the fact that if she still feared infestation, going out alone would mean no one would be there to stop it. He already had Dr. Hanson standing by in the drop pod hangars to be sent to the surface at a moment's notice should something like that happen, as he refused for her to simply pull the trigger on her head.

"It'll be alright, Sarah," Nova said softly. "We'll clear the Zerg out of Agria in no time. Both you and Jim are a little paranoid, although it's completely understandable."

"All right people, we've touched down," the pilot declared. "Ahead of you is the open battlefield. Give them hell!"

The ramp descended and the marines, firebats, and marauders quickly scurried out, ready for battle. Sarah remained behind for a moment, taking a deep breath in anticipation of what's to come.

"I've caused enough human deaths already," she said softly to Nova. "They may be assigned to protect me, but I have an obligation to protect them as best I could. I don't need to read their minds to know many of them still see me as the Queen of Blades, so I have to prove them wrong."

Nova nodded, before picking up her rifle and walking down the ramp. "We all have to do our parts."

Sarah took one last deep breath and picked up her rifle as well to join the rest of the squad, many of them eager for battle. She hoped Jim was right in that she could find redemption.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: This chapter will begin the path of redemption for Kerrigan. It will certainly be a long one for her. Please let me know if you think I started it off well for her here or not.**

**As always, please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter 13

**En Route to Xel'Naga Caverns**

"Great one, we are nearing the designated location, per your request," a Templar announced.

"What is the concentration of Zerg in the area?" Zeratul asked.

"Our Observers have detected a small Zerg colony to the south. Their numbers are in the thousands, insignificant compared to our great fleets, but would post a grave threat to the forces currently at our disposal."

"Has there been any indication that they have ventured to where we are headed?" Admiral Urun asked, as his Phoenix ships continued to advance alongside Zeratul's Void Seeker.

"Only the occasional patrols. It would appear that the Zerg show no interest in what Zeratul is seeking, although we may encounter difficulties with our own brethren. We have picked up the presence of a splinter Protoss tribe called the Tal'darim. There have been reports from our warriors all over Aiur of similar encounters, and all of them showed hostility to both us as well as the Zerg."

"They were once slaves to the traitor Ulrezaj," Zeratul commented. "Although it has been a year since they discovered the true nature of their master, the possibility that his influence remains cannot be factored out. The Tal'darim had proven themselves to be hostile to all that are different from them. Despite his services to Aiur, even Jim Raynor was greeted by such animosity by them."

"It is considered a sin to steal such holy relics created by the Xel'Naga, mighty Zeratul. The Tal'darim were not unreasonable in defending them against the terrans and the Zerg for such crimes. The Daelaam Protoss would have understood such actions."

"You forget the greater picture, Templar. Had he not acquired the relics, we would not be here to reclaim Aiur. Remember, Jim Raynor may have defeated the Queen of Blades on Char, but it was the Xel'Naga artifact itself that reverted her back to her human form. Our traditions may be to explore and safeguard the treasures of our fathers, but during the time I have spent with the terrans, I have also learned that in order to ensure our own survival, some traditions must be broken. Hierarch Artanis has informed me that once the former Queen of Blades has recovered from her incapacitation, Jim Raynor will come to Aiur to assist us in the retaking of our homeworld."

"What of the Tal'darim?" Urun asked. "Have they been corrupted to the point where we must return them to the Khala?"

"They have been greatly weakened after so many confrontations against Jim Raynor," Zeratul explained. "Their leadership is in ruins due to the loss of their executor on a Xel'Naga vessel. However, this does not mean they are no longer dangerous. We must proceed with caution once we arrive at the sacred site, for I fear even as liberators, they will not be welcoming us with open arms. Until proven otherwise, we must assume no Tal'darim tribe is considered an ally."

Suddenly, a transmission came through the Void Seeker. "This land is sacred to the Tal'darim and the knowledge you seek is forbidden! You will evacuate this place immediately or you will perish!"

"Zeratul, our Observers are picking up Tal'darim Scouts being mobilized against us!"

"It is as I feared then," the Dark Templar sighed. "Admiral Urun, prepare your ships for combat. We must gain access to the Aiur Caverns. I have been told what lies beneath the sacred grounds will play its role in our struggles ahead."

Within minutes, the sky was filled with the sound of battle as Scouts and Phoenixes battled for control of the air, as Zeratul continued on with his Protoss ground brethren towards the sacred ground.

* * *

**Agria**

Sarah gripped her C-20 Canister Rifle as she advanced alongside the squad. Other than the hive cluster, the only other heavy concentration of Zerg was located at the starport. Although there weren't many flyers present, there was a very high concentration of Zerg larvae. Due to the rapid metamorphosis time in creating new breeds, attacking it directly by air would result in a bloodbath. Most of the Vikings were needed to neutralize the Zerg air power at the hive cluster, which means air support would be provided by Wraiths only. If the larvae are morphed into Zerg flyers, the terran fighters would be shredded. Although many marines were dissatisfied with the lack of air support, the Zerg tend not to use their air units so much when confronting a ground attack force only. Rather, to satisfy the creatures' thirst for destruction, pure ground units are often deployed in such confrontations. Still, this could lead to attacks from heavy Zerg breeds such as Ultralisks, but the fact that they had two ghosts with them would compensate for that.

Leading the squad, Lieutenant Franklin was not one bit comforted by the presence of the two ghosts. Although Kerrigan looked human again, the fact remains there was no proof she was no longer the Queen of Blades. He had fought with other Dominion troops against the Zerg, and had been part of the defenders at the hive cluster on Char where Raynor activated the alien artifact. He had seen first-hand what the Queen of Blades was capable of, and if she was still alive, she could kill them all in a second.

Then again, Nova never possessed the powers Kerrigan had, and she too was strong enough to kill them all simply by using her ghost powers. Franklin knew the blond ghost had some sort of mind attack ability, which could destroy her opponents' brains, yet leaving everything else perfectly unharmed. Since Kerrigan is psionically stronger than her, she could kill the whole squad just as easily that way, even if all her power when she was the Queen of Blades had been stripped.

Franklin jumped a little as a hand landed on the shoulder of his CMC suit. Nova walked alongside him, shaking her head. "You're being too paranoid. She's not the Queen of Blades anymore. She never was to begin with."

He stared at the former Dominion ghost for a moment. Apparently the time spent with Raynor had really changed her. All the Dominion ghosts are known to be ruthless and cold hearted. They had to be, since they're assassins. While Nova had been somewhat different during her time in the Dominion, the occasional times he had seen her she too had been cold hearted. Now, it would appear the Raiders' influence had turned her into a more compassionate person. He had seen how well she and Kerrigan had been getting along after the former Confederate ghost's recovery, but he couldn't help but wonder if this was just some sort of trick to influence Nova.

"How can you say that?" He said finally. "You and I both fought to defend that alien relic on Char. You saw what she's capable of."

"And you saw your share of infested terrans during that battle," Nova countered. "They were nothing but puppets controlled against their will. Sarah had it the same way. Now she's been cured, and she's fighting on our side against the Zerg."

"Most of the people on the ground are uncomfortable with her here, I wouldn't be surprised if most of our squad here is bracing themselves, thinking any second now she'll turn on us."

"You really have trust issues, all you boys do," Nova scoffed. "Sarah is trying to redeem herself and you're making it sound like all she's trying to do is trick you."

"She's full of deception and treachery when she was that Zerg monster! You know how addictive the lust for power can be. You honestly think she's willing to give it up?"

"Yes I would." Franklin whirled around to see Sarah walk up from behind them. "I know none of you trust me, and I don't expect you to. As far as you're concerned, I'm just a mass murderer who killed 8 billion people."

"You're right in that at times, I reveled in the power the Zerg gave me. But I've learned that power alone isn't enough to conquer everything. And I learned that I lost my mind and soul when I was the Queen of Blades. That means more to me than any amount of power I could obtain, and I wouldn't trade my mind for anything again," Sarah said quietly.

"I'm surprised by this of you. All that strength and you wouldn't even think of it?"

"I've realized now that individual power and brute force alone aren't enough to win battles. If they were, Jim wouldn't have been able to save me on Char. The truth is he's stronger than me, and that's why he prevailed."

Franklin was taken aback. When she was the Queen of Blades she had constantly seen herself as the most powerful being in the universe. Jim Raynor was nothing but a speck of dust in comparison. Now she's admitting he was stronger than her?

Sarah saw that the marine was finally beginning to believe her. "Whether you believe it or not, I'm not here to hurt any of you. I'm here to fight the things that turned me into their slave."

"If you three are done, we've got Zerg signatures detected!" A marauder announced.

"Range?" Franklin asked.

"About a mile away, numbering in the dozens. Looks like they're slowly closing the distance."

"Lock and load, everyone!" Franklin ordered. "Crap will be hitting the fan any minute now!"

Sarah cocked her C-20 Canister Rifle, mentally thanking Nova for giving her the new model instead of her C-10. Unlike the one she used to carry, the C-20 model is fitted with a grenade launcher attachment. Since the Zerg are fully biological, her launcher is stocked with irradiate grenades. Nova explained that the radiation effect from them poisons the Zerg faster than they could heal, and she too had well stocked up on the grenades.

"Sir, we've got multiple targets coming in hot!" A marine exclaimed.

From the distance, Zerglings were racing towards them, snarling in anger and out for blood and gore against their prey.

"All right everyone, light them up!" Franklin shouted, as his marines opened up with their gauss rifles.

Nova and Sarah also opened fire, as their bullets tore into the Zerg attackers. Zergling after Zergling fell, but the swarm continued to press forward. The marauders let loose their punisher grenades, as entire Zerg bodies were blown apart by their sheer explosive power.

However, the Zerg were just as quick to adapt. Almost immediately, the attackers began to disperse in different directions.

"The flanks! Watch the flanks!" Franklin shouted, as the marines began firing from different angles as the Zerglings approached. By now, Roaches were joining the attackers, and many marauders were forced to concentrate their fire on them before they could get within acid spitting range.

As the Roaches got closer, Nova used her telekinetic powers to topple a nearby tree. None of the Zerg were killed, but it did block the corridor they were scurrying from to attack them. The Roaches were able to burrow underground and move under it, but the Zerglings and Hydralisks were stuck behind, angrily tearing at fallen trunk, trying to break it apart as fast as they could.

"Sarah, do it!" Nova shouted.

The red head concentrated her psionic powers and casted a psionic storm of blue lightning. The screams of the Zerg from behind the trunk was a clear indication that the storm had found its target.

"Burn them all!" A firebat shouted, as he let loose the flames on his perdition flamethrower. Some of the Zerglings were fried before they could get in range, but others closed in and began tearing at the firebats. The marines were firing desperately to protect them, but by now they were desperately trying to avoid being shot at by Hydralisk spines.

A firebat next to Nova was hit in the head by one such spine. Reacting quickly, the blond ghost used her telekinetic powers and hurled the body into the advancing Zerg. A few seconds later, the firebat's gasoline tank exploded, as the Hydralisks unlucky enough to be caught in its blast radius screamed in pain, their bodies aflame.

Sarah fired a few irradiate grenades from her grenade launcher, but this was only useful against distant targets. The radiation was every bit as harmful to them as it is to the Zerg, so the ones too close would have to be spared from that. Scowling in frustration, she focused her powers and unleashed pure inertia nearby her. Immediately, the Zerg attackers were forced back from the blast, and as soon as they were out of range, she called out to a nearby firebat.

"Scorch them!" she shouted.

"I'm a little busy right now!" he shouted back, projecting flames onto nearby Zerglings.

Suddenly, the flames from his flamethrower moved away from their targets and turned towards the Zerg creatures Sarah just blasted back. The red head turned around and smiled. Nova was using her telekinetic powers to manipulate the direction of the flames, whilst firing her C-20 Rifle against the Zerglings that tried to rush the confused firebat.

To her left, Franklin was doing what he did best, but with so many other marines cut down by Hydralisk spines, his fire support had been greatly weakened. By now, the marauders were being forced to draw their pistols as the Zerglings got too close for them to use their punisher grenades effectively. Because they were not trained as well for such close quarters combat, many of them were starting to become overwhelmed. The firebats did what they could to force the Zerglings off as the CMC armor of the marauders could withstand more flame punishment compared to the Zergling carapace, but most of them were being forced to divert their attention to the Roaches as they popped up from beneath the ground close to them. Nova used the same inertia attack she just used to forcibly blast the creatures back, but Zerglings kept dispersing their positions to avoid it.

Suddenly, the Zerglings stopped their attacks, and together with the Roaches and Hydralisks, began to fall back, as the ground began to shake.

"We've driven them off!" a marine shouted.

Nova listened carefully as the thumping sounds got closer. "No, I think something else is coming…"

Franklin's eyes widened as he saw the reason why the Zerg attackers withdrew. "Ultralisks inbound!"

"Sir, we have to fall back!" a marauder exclaimed. "We don't have the firepower to take them on!"

Sarah reached up to her comm-link. "Dr. Hanson, come in! Are the defenses still standing from our location?"

"What are you doing?" Franklin demanded.

"We're less than 3 miles from Larks' Crossing," she told him. "That was one of the evacuation areas for the colony ships, other than the starport itself."

Sarah help up her hand as Ariel spoke into the communicator. "They are but non-functional. Their power source has been cut already."

"We'll take care of it," the ghost replied, before turning to Franklin again. "That place has auto turret defenses to protect the colony ships."

"Orbital scans showed they're offline though," Franklin pointed out.

"That's because the power station nearby had been damaged during the Zerg invasion. The Zerg didn't care about destroying the building itself once the auto turrets couldn't fire anymore. If we can restore the power there—"

"—we can channel the Ultralisks into killing zones," the lieutenant finished for her.

Franklin took a deep breath, before turning to the remnants of his squad. "You heard the lady, everyone follow me! We're going on a little detour!"

There were some grumblings about trusting the former Queen of Blades, but with the Ultralisks closing in, there was little room to argue. Sarah sighed in relief as she saw most faces express agreement for her plan.

"Maybe we were wrong about you," Franklin said softly, as they began running towards their destination. "Maybe this time you really have changed for the better."

"I'm just doing my part," Sarah replied. "I'm no great savior at all if I can't even protect a small squad of Dominion infantrymen."

* * *

**Dominion Lab Complex, Castanar**

Gestalt 107 breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the sounds of battle coming from behind the door. Their reinforcements had made it just in time. Another minute at the hybrid would have smashed the door down and the 8 of them would have been slaughtered. Now, it would appear the hybrid is moving away from their location.

He nodded to the other gestalts. "Open the door immediately. Mengsk has delivered on his promise, more gestalts have arrived to help us."

Some of the gestalts looked uneasy. "You really think they'll succeed? The 25 of us were no match for the hybrid at all."

"This time we've got 10 times that number," Gestalt 104 assured. "And our own efforts weren't in vain. The hybrid did take damage from us, there just weren't enough of us to exploit it."

The other gestalts nodded, as Gestalt 112 hit the blast door console, and the door hissed open. "Everyone, lock and load! We're going hybrid hunting!"

Gestalt 104 and 107 ignited their psionic blades, and the others followed seconds after. Without another word they headed down the corridor, as the sounds of battle drew every closer.

When they reached their destination, they saw the hybrid was indeed starting to weaken under the attacks at the docking bay. Because it had no offensive capabilities against aerial targets, it had to wait until the dropships touched down before it could attack the gestalt clones disembarking from it. However, while the artillery attacks from siege tanks did negligible damage to it, the sheer amount of rubble the shells rained down upon itself slowed down its movement considerably as it dug itself from the ruins.

This gave the gestalts the time they needed to safely get out of the dropships, many of them already trying to jump onto the abomination itself to slice at its throat.

"Over here!" a gestalt called to them.

Gestalt 104 hurried over to the new gestalt clone, noticing the number 527 engraved on its arm. "What is the situation?"

Gestalt 527 yanked 104 behind a pile of rubble, away from the hybrid before speaking. "Progress. The creature's taken out 35 guys already, 17 more injured, but we landed with a force 250 strong. We've still got fight left in us."

"And the hybrid?"

"It appears even it can't sustain battle indefinitely. It's attacks have slowed somewhat, and it stopped attacking us with the slime attack. Apparently its energy is starting to run out."

"Remember, Mengsk wants it alive, we're not here to kill it."

"You don't have to worry about that, 104. Our psi blades seem to be the only thing that can hurt it anyway."

Gestalt 104 suddenly noticed the different weapon configuration on 527's left arm. "Are you different from the others? We still have to carry our rifles, but you seem to have them built in to you."

"We're the newer gestalts," 527 replied, pointing to the minigun grafted to the cybernetic plating on his left arm. "Initially we were supposed to be like you, carrying a gun. It was decided we'd stand a better chance by integrating a modified version of the marine wrist cannon for us."

Both of them suddenly looked up, as the hybrid gave a shriek of pain, as gestalts finally succeeded in climbing onto its back and slicing at its neck. The creature threw as many of them off as it could, but more climbed on to take their fellow gestalts' place. Weakened from the psi blade piercings, the hybrid finally collapsed, unable to heal or recover from the relentless attacks.

"Remember, don't kill it!" Gestalt 112 ordered, as the other gestalts gathered around the massive creature, their psi blades still ignited just in case it got back up.

Gestalt 107 reached up to him comm-link. "Emperor, it is done. The hybrid has been subdued, but still breathing, just as you requested."

"Excellent," Mengsk's voice replied on the other end. "I knew the gestalt project would pay off eventually."

"What should we do with it, sir?"

"Load it up into cargo. I'll send a Hercules dropship to the installation right away. Have the creature transported to another installation. General Ridgeway can tell you which one has a containment field strong enough to hold it."

"And what about ourselves?"

"From the bio-readings, it appears there's still some 200 of you left in fighting condition after this. Gather up 150 of you to escort the hybrid to the installation. You'll be needed as security in case the hybrid is able to escape again."

"What of the remainder?"

"I have another task for you to do. With the hybrid in my possession again, I can begin the next phase in putting the sector under my control once more. If I know Raynor, he would be too focused on helping Kerrigan recover than turn his attention to me, so now is the perfect time to strike."

"You want them eliminated?"

"No. Killing Raynor when he's got so much public support will only make things worse, at least by my own hand. I need the public to see their hero fall another way. And with the Zerg weakened, I know exactly how to make that happen. Gather up a few dozen of your fellow gestalts to a ship immediately, I'll be sending you the coordinates for the warp jump."

"Where are we going, sir?"

"The one place I know that has the power to give me what I need: Aiur."


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: Quicker update for today. This chapter will explore more of what is currently happening on Aiur, as well as go further into Kerrigan's role in finding redemption. Here, I tried to get her to earn the trust of more people, so let me know how you think I did in that.**

**Please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter 14

**Aiur**

"Hierarch, are you certain it is safe for you to come down here?" Mohandar asked, as he and his Void Rays escorted Artanis's Mothership across the open plains of Aiur. "The Zerg air threat may have been greatly weakened, but they remain dangerous!"

"As long as their forces remain concentrated around Antioch and the body of the Overmind, it is safe for me to come to the surface," Artanis replied calmly. "We shall deal with their presence accordingly when the time comes. It is clear that without the leadership from the Queen of Blades, their offensive abilities are no longer as effective as before. It is why we have sustained fewer losses in retaking other sectors of our world."

"Executor Selendis has secured the outer suburbs of Scion Province. The latest Observer scans indicate that the Zerg there are falling back to the center of the city for their last stand."

"She is a strong warrior, Mohandar. I know she will be able scour the Zerg from the rest of Scion quickly. Our brethren from other parts of Aiur have been reporting similar success. Soon all that the Zerg will have are their two strongholds they had fortified during the initial stages of the invasion."

"I do not understand, Hierarch. Why did we not attack the Zerg at our capital immediately? We could have dealt a crushing blow to them and weakened their hold on Aiur even sooner."

"I have learned from my time with the terrans that not all combat is as glorious as we proclaim it to be," Artanis said slowly. "Attacking Antioch would have resulted in losses far too great for us to bear. Now that the Zerg can no longer cut off our reinforcements from warping in, we are able to safely muster our forces until we have the strength necessary for such an assault."

"Do you believe the terran James Raynor will arrive to help us in the endeavor?"

"I do. He wishes to know more about the prophecy just as we do. I have no doubt he will come to Aiur as soon as he has helped the former Queen of Blades recover."

"There are many of us who are outraged of putting our trust in her yet again, Hierarch. Confiding with a veil creature such as her is heresy."

"Our Judicator Aldaris spoke in a similar manner when Tassadar first associated with Prelate Zeratul. He admitted the error of his ways after the destruction of the Overmind on Aiur. Perhaps if James Raynor is correct, so shall I about Kerrigan."

"After the death of our Matriarch I find it impossible the Queen of Blades would help us in our goals. I cannot believe she would assist us in any way unless she had her own gain to benefit from it."

"She had made it clear to me she would accept the charges brought up against her once she has done her part," Artanis assured. "She even told James Raynor not to defend her should our sentence be execution, though I fear he would not listen to that."

"Why did you believe her?" Mohandar pressed. "Many of our brethren are concerned that she had manipulated you, just as she did to Raszagal."

"I have my doubts. But in her human form, she was certainly nothing like what I had been expecting. She seemed very fragile and frightened, horrified of all she had done during her time with the Zerg. Although experience has taught me that human emotions are difficult to read, it would appear this time there is an element of truth in her eyes."

"I still have my doubts. Do you honestly believe James Raynor will protect her if some of our brethren seek their retribution?"

"That I do not doubt at all. His feelings for Kerrigan existed even when she was with the Zerg. And he is correct that he knows her better than myself, just as I know Tassadar better than him."

"Mighty Tassadar is a hero of the Protoss! The former Queen of Blades is nothing more than a traitor to all creation!"

Artanis sighed in irritation. Although he was getting used to the waves of protest from his brethren of trusting Kerrigan, it did not make things any easier. It wouldn't be surprising if Jim Raynor held off coming to Aiur simply because of his fear of how the Protoss will react to her presence.

Still, the Protoss on Haven did not make any assassination attempts on the former Queen of Blades, which had greatly surprised him. But as he had learned from his experience with the terrans, they are never to be underestimated. He had no doubt that even if Kerrigan lost all the power she once possessed as the Queen of Blades, she would still be dangerous to them. This of course only reinforced the factor of distrust, but Jim Raynor was right in that everyone deserves a chance at redemption.

"Prelate Mohandar, we have reached the River of Light," a Dark Templar announced.

"What is the concentration of Zerg present?" Mohandar asked.

"Our Observers have detected a large Zerg colony to the north. They are staying away from the river itself as they are unable to adapt to the water. If we stay close to the river, it can be used to great benefit."

"That is not the way of the Protoss!" A Zealot exclaimed. "It is our right to engage the veil creatures in glorious combat!"

"There is nothing glorious about being killed," Artanis pointed out. "We are here to reclaim our homeworld. That is more important that clinging to our traditions."

"Hierarch, we have Zerg flyers incoming!" A Stalker announced.

"Void Rays, to arms!" Mohandar announced, as the individual Void Rays powered up their prismatic beams. Within minutes, the skies were filled with the sounds of battle, as Corruptors and Mutalisks were shot out of the sky.

"Stalkers, defend the riverbank!" Artanis ordered, as Warp Prisms were launched from his Mothership. "Do not allow our Warp Prisms to be destroyed!"

The individual Stalkers fanned out, as swarms of Zerglings charged to annihilate the intruders. Many were killed by their particle disruptors, but others were able to get through. The Zealots warped in from the Warp Prisms were doing their best to protect the Stalkers, but as Hydralisks and Roaches joined in, they began to get overwhelmed.

"Withdrawal to the river edge!" Mohandar commanded. "Force the Zerg to the one place they are at their weakest!"

The Protoss warriors fell back, and as predicted, the Zerg instantly gave chase. Most of their ground forces hesitated well short of the river itself, but Mutalisks and Brood Lords continued to hound the Protoss. The Void Rays above did what they could against the Brood Lords, but the Mutalisk attacks continued.

"Warp in the Sentries immediately!" Artanis ordered. "Templars, release the full might of your storms!"

Amidst the sounds of crackling lighting, the Zealots and Stalkers continued fighting on the ground, as individual Zerg minions were torn apart by the Templars' power. By now, the Sentries have been warped in and their disruption beams added to the sounds of battle.

Artanis turned to a communicator console. "Executor Selendis, has Scion been reclaimed?"

"It has, Hierarch. With the exception of minor Zerg stragglers, the city is ours again," the female executor stated.

"Direct your Carrier fleet to the River of Light immediately. Mohandar and I are already engaged in combat against the Zerg here."

"It will be done, Hierarch."

* * *

**Larks' Crossing, Agria**

"All right everyone, it appears we're in luck," Nova announced, as the squad finished setting up the barricade to the power station entrance. "Looks like the Zerg destroyed the generators powering the auto-turrets, but they never did anything about the back-up generators. We get them operating, the turrets will be online again."

"The Ultralisks will be here in a matter of minutes!" A firebat exclaimed. "There's no way the barricade will hold off a Zerg monster that size for long!"

"And it'd be stupid to assume they'd be coming alone!" A marauder added. "I'm sure it's smart enough to bring other Zerg to the party as well!"

"Then quit your complaining and get the generators online already!" Franklin shouted, as Sarah and nearby marines looked over the power station generator blueprints. They appear to be discussing the strategies for how to lure the Zerg here, although none of the marines looked too happy about going face to face against Ultralisks without any heavy support.

Sarah looked up suddenly from the blueprints. "Franklin, this power station should also be a console for the manual override for the auto-turrets. I need you to locate them."

Franklin frowned. "What for? All we have to do is turn the generators on, the turrets will take care of the Zerg for us."

"They may rely on overwhelming numbers, but they're not cannon fodder," Sarah replied. "They have minds of their own too."

Franklin gestured for some of the marines to proceed further into the station for the generators, before turning to Sarah again. "So what are you saying? They may not come into auto turrets' line of fire at all?"

"It's possible, that's all I'm saying. When they arrive, they'll know we're in this area, and will continue to search for us until they find us. There aren't any turrets defending the power station itself, so if they find out we're in here, they'll stop at nothing to break the door down."

Franklin nodded grimly. "So you're saying someone needs to go out there to make them think we're out in the open."

"See? She's going to get us all killed!" A marauder shouted. "She got us here, and now she expects us to be the bait for the Zerg!"

"Will you shut up and listen?" Franklin seethed, irritated. "We're going to have a real fight on our hands soon if this goes south, last thing we need is to accuse each other!"

He sighed and directed his attention to Sarah again. "He's got a point though. These are Ultralisks we're dealing with here. I didn't think about it before, but these turrets have gauss cannons. They're stronger than the C-14 rifles we've got, but they're still designed only infantry and lightly armored vehicle defense. The Ultralisk is essentially a biological super tank, and we don't even know how many of them will be coming. Even if there's no other Zerg with them, sending someone out there is virtually a death sentence."

"I know," Sarah said softly, before picking up her C-20 Canister Rifle. "That's why I'll do it myself."

Nova looked up, startled. "Sarah, you can't be serious! I know you're good but there's going to be dozens of Zerg out there! You can't fight them alone!"

The red head shook her head slowly. "It was my idea to come to the power station to begin with, remember?"

"That doesn't mean you also have to be the bait! I can go with you!"

"Enough people have died over me already. I'm not adding any more casualties to the list," Sarah explained, looking over at the marauders and firebats. "They would have wanted me to be the bait anyway, so I'm saving them the trouble."

Franklin was having a hard time digesting all this. He didn't want to risk the lives of his men, but Raynor would have his head on a platter if Kerrigan was killed. From what he could see, everyone else in the squad was expendable compared to the former Queen of Blades. He could already see the expression on some of his men. Some were relieved that they didn't have to put their lives on the line for this, but some seem to be opposed to her being the bait. Possibly because they had higher morals than letting one lone person go out there, but most likely because they think she's still the Queen of Blades and therefore the moment she goes out there alone she'd take control of the Zerg and slaughter them all.

Nova seemed to have picked up on his thoughts, and walked up to him. "She can lure the Zerg away from us, lieutenant. We'll all be safe in here while she takes the risks, even though I don't want her to."

"The Zerg are attracted to the psionic emanations of ghosts," Sarah explained. "I have a higher signature than Nova, so if I stay in here it's quite possible the Zerg will be attracted to the station anyway."

"Ok, if that's true, then even if you go out there the Zerg will still be attracted to her," A marine pointed out, gesturing to Nova.

"Not if my signature is high enough," Sarah countered.

"Look people, we can debate this all day, or we can let her go on with the plan," Franklin intervened, as the sounds of the Zerg from beyond the door clearly indicated that they had arrived in the vicinity.

Sarah nodded to him. "I know the turrets won't have much effect on the Ultralisks. But remember, as a ghost I have abilities that you don't. I have a better chance of surviving."

Nova sighed. There was no point to argue further, as Sarah had clearly made up her mind. "Then why do you need us to activate the manual override on the turrets?"

"They're programmed to attack anything non-friendly. Remember, I still have some Zerg blood in me, so the turrets could think I'm an infested terran or something. If that happens I'll get shot at as well."

Franklin gestured to his marines, and tossed his C-14 rifle to Sarah. "Take this then."

"What for? I already have a gun." The ghost said.

"Once you go out there it's clear you're not coming back in until all the Zerg are dead. I don't care how skilled you are, even you need the bullets."

"You expect us to hand over our spare ammo cartridges to her?" A marine asked, aghast.

"I'm ordering it," Franklin shot back. "We're not leaving the station, so we won't need it anyway."

"Assuming the Zerg really won't barge in here!"

"They certainly will if we don't do something soon," Franklin countered, as the other marines obediently handed their ammunition to Sarah.

He turned back to Sarah once more. "I guess we'll all have to trust you as some point. Good luck out there."

"I'll keep you safe, I promise," Sarah replied, picking up her newly acquired goods and headed for the back door. "You'll be able to see everything from the monitors here, so you'll know when to shoot."

* * *

**Xel'Naga Caverns Entrance, Aiur**

"Incredible," Zeratul breathed, as he and his Dark Templar brethren stood at the giant entrance to the Aiur Caverns. "An entire underground city created by the Xel'Naga themselves right here on Aiur, and yet so few Protoss have entered or even know of its very existence."

"What significance does this sacred providence hold, great one?" A Dark Templar asked.

"That information was not known to me," the Nerazim replied. "The preserver Zamara only informed me to see this place out, and that whatever I discover within will play its role in the upcoming struggle ahead."

"I must say, this is unlike anything I have yet seen on our homeworld," Urun observed, as his Phoenix ships continued to patrol the underground entrance. "Before, I had always believed that the Cave of Relics was the most holy site of our fathers."

"That location had been frequently used by my Shelak Tribe before the fall of Aiur," a Templar commented from one of the Phoenix ships flying above. "Most of our Protoss brethren did not have the respect of the Xel'Naga as we did, not after the Aeon of Strife. Even today, we are the closest Khalai Protoss to our fathers. Yet most of us only believed this location to be a myth."

"Perhaps in time, you and the rest of your people will be allowed to further explore this sacred place, Zekrath," Zeratul explained. "I understand your people's desire for extended knowledge of the Xel'Naga, but our mission now is to focus on the retaking of Aiur itself, and this location will be among the steps necessary to complete this task."

Zekrath nodded. Even before the return of the Zerg, he had been seeking further information of their creators. It was why he had greatly desired to travel to the moon of Ehlna, the very first world the Dark Templar had set foot on after their exile from Aiur. The Alys'aril Sanctuary was forged out of altered Khaydarin Crystals from the Xel'Naga, and such knowledge was invaluable to the Protoss. However, he was denied the chance for knowledge due to the impending dangers ahead for the Protoss Preserver Zamara.

Now, it was possible that before them lies a sanctuary that far exceeded the imaginations of most of his brethren. A part of him wanted to go with Zeratul to explore the caverns and explore its secrets, but the Dark Templar was right: the reclamation of Aiur is the more important task. If what lies down there could assist them, then that has to take top priority.

"Zeratul, did the preserver Zamara reveal to you what you are seeking?" He asked.

The Nerazim shook his head slowly. "All she explained to me was that when I come across what I seek, I will know it immediately. I do not know what lies within these caverns, but they must be thoroughly explored. My Dark Templar brethren will accompany me in this journey. You must remain out here and ensure that no veil Zerg creatures defile this holy sanctum."

"The Sehlak Guardians stand ready," Zekrath said proudly, as the Zealots and Stalkers gathered around the entrance. "More of my brethren will be arriving to reinforce our positions soon. As long as one of us still breathes, no intruder will set foot in the Xel'Naga providence."

"Zamara spoke of a secret rear entrance to the caverns. Urun, Zekrath, the entrance we stand before now is the front, an obvious entrance for intruders. They must not be allowed to know there is a 2nd way in. I will lead my Dark Templar brethren to enter from the secret passageway."

"My Phoenix interceptors will guard such an entrance," Urun announced. "Proceed with caution, great Zeratul. There is no telling what secrets our fathers may reveal."

Without another word Zeratul gathered his Dark Templar and headed towards where Zamara had informed him where the secret entrance is. With the concentrations of Zerg being beaten back all across the planet, all that will remain are their strongholds at Antioch and the Overmind's final resting site. Entering and exploring the caverns, therefore, should be relatively safe.

What neither Zeratul nor the rest of the Protoss realized, however, was that from a relatively safe distance away, hidden in the foliage of the dense Aiur jungle, a pair of glowing blue eyes was watching, and waiting.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

**Aiur**

The hybrid watched as Zeratul as his brethren go, before blinking away deeper into the jungle. When it was clear he was out of detection range, he entered a telepathic state.

"Master, it is as we had predicted. After the events on Char, the Protoss have arrived to take their precious homeworld back."

"That comes as no surprise to me," the Dark Voice spoke. Despite being countless light years away, the hybrid could hear his master as if he was right next to him. "They believe now that the Queen of Blades is dead, the Zerg are now scattered, no longer capable of mounting attacks or even an effective defense. Soon, they will learn just how wrong they are."

"I stand ready to obey, my master. As you had requested, I have kept the Zerg hive cluster in the vicinity in a relatively calm and quiet state. Now the Protoss believe that there is little chance of attack, and have thus far ignored them altogether."

"What is your status of control over them?"

"You need not worry, master. Now that I am in such close proximity, none of them can stray from my will. With but a thought, I can command them all to attack the Protoss in the area."

"The Protoss there are to live for the time being, my servant. Allow them to locate what they seek in the underground providence. If I am correct, their discovery will prompt swift action on their part to have them destroyed, not realizing that by now, they have grown to full maturity. Their actions will do nothing more than release them out into the Void, and that will increase my control of the Zerg on this world."

"You refer to Zeratul and his Dark Templar. The Protoss holding outside are of no relevance. Why should we allow them to live right now?"

"Zeratul had initially refused to abandon Karass on Ulaan, young one. It is only logical that he would not abandon his brethren in the dire times. His years of combat experience has made him powerful against the Zerg, and I do not wish for him to leave the caverns to tip the balance in the Protoss's favor. What he seeks beneath will be the end of him, forever denying the Protoss of their mighty warrior."

"Then what is your will, master?"

"Gather the Zerg forces in the hive cluster. When they are released from the caverns, the Protoss will be thrown into disarray. The time will then be ripe to strike."

* * *

**Agrian Starport, Agria**

Jim clutched his rifle as he walked down the trenches filled with infantrymen. He was originally supposed to stay on the BattleCruiser Helios, but the mounting casualties against the Zerg hive cluster had forced him to hitch a ride on a orbital drop pod down to the command center. Despite being battered elsewhere on the planet, the Zerg here remained defiant and continued to resist all further attacks to annihilate them.

He wanted to be down on Agria, but not here. Apparently Sarah's squad had taken a heavy beating against the Zerg near Lark's Crossing and was forced to barricade themselves in a power station nearby. He had wanted to send some of the Banshee patrols to help her, but they were all needed to provide fire support for the marines here. All he could hope for now was that Sarah could hold her own until he could finish the job here.

"What is the situation?" He asked a nearby officer.

"The outer defenses have been neutralized," the young man reported. "Our Siege Tanks have taken care of any Zerglings that have tried to overwhelm the Reapers. Their D-8 Charges have made short work of the Spine Crawlers, and the Vikings are successfully preventing their flyers from raining down on us."

"And the push to the hive cluster itself?"

"That's going to be a tricky one, sir. Almost all paths leading to it are extremely narrow, just enough for our Hellions to fit through. We can provide it with some marauder escorts, but the Zerg have positioned Ultralisks at the choke point exits, which the Hellion's flamethrower can do crap against. Similarly, those exits are spiked with Spore Crawlers, so any attempt to protect them with Wraiths will get shredded. We've tried to send Thors to blast a way through, but the Zerg destroyed many rock formations that caused a cave in from the adjacent cliffs. The paths are now too narrow for the Thors to maneuver, so they can't support one another effectively."

"The Zerg wouldn't be dumb enough to box themselves completely in," Jim replied. "Their Nydus Worms may help them tunnel underground, but those can't deploy Zerg the second they pop out of the ground. The Zerg have to be smart enough to have a safe place for the worms to pop up from the ground."

"The only wide path is just north of their base. We have detected a heavy concentration of Zerg larvae there, and the moment anyone gets close to check it out, they're hatched into Mutalisks to deal with them. We've tried sending Thors to that area as well to blast a way in, but the Zerg positioned Virophage buildings there. The slime those things are spewing out are slowing down our mechanical walkers dramatically, leaving them easy prey to the flyers since Thors don't have strong anti-air capabilities."

"Are there any Zerg units protecting the larvae?"

"There's only a few dozen Zerglings, Roaches, and Hydralisks in the area, what are you getting at?"

"They fortified the area based on the assumption we'd go in with the heavy artillery. If we move in with infantry only, they won't suspect it."

"Sir, that's suicide! Without artillery support or air cover, you won't last 5 min there!"

"I've fought the Zerg for much longer than you," Jim assured. "I know what I'm doing. Just get me some infantry."

The marine officer sighed. "My boys aren't going to like this, Raynor. They're going to think you're going to use them for cannon fodder."

"Unlike your emperor, I do my best to protect the people I command, even those that were once my enemies." Jim replied, gesturing to his nearby Vulture that came with the drop pod. "Besides, I've got the technological ingenuity weapon necessary to protect them much better than they think."

The officer gestured for a group of marines, marauders, and reapers over. "You're the expert in dealing with the Zerg here, so I'll trust you. These boys will be yours to command for this mission. The marines have been given the special heavy gauss rifles instead of the standard type, with an integrated grenade launcher and heavier stopping power."

One of the marines snorted. "I don't care how good he thinks he is, he's still just one man. What does he have we don't?"

Jim smirked slightly, before walking back to his Vulture and pulled out his weapon. The marine's eyes widened. What the rebel commander held in his hands was a Mark XII Heavy Penetrator Commando Rifle. It was so huge that Raynor was forced to grip it with both hands. In comparison, the heavy gauss rifle looked like a child's toy.

"This bad boy can fire an HEV round that is capable of piercing the skin of even the strongest Zerg," Jim replied. "If things get too rough, you just lure them towards me, I'll do the rest."

He then opened a channel on his comm-link. "General Warfield, have the Thors positioned just out of range of the Virophages. Once we've destroyed enough of them, the Thors can just go in destroy all the Nydus Worms and remove the Zerg transport threat."

"You only have a short window to make that happen, Raynor," the general's voice came over the link. "Every 30 minutes those worms pop out and deploy more Zerg minions. I suggest you begin the assault as soon as those Zerg leave the worms. Be careful, this could be a one-way ticket. If you don't clear a path for the Thors when the 30 minutes are up, you'll be Zerg chow."

"Saddle up boys!" Jim ordered, as he returned to his Vulture and headed for his destination while the marines, marauders, and reapers all followed in Hellions. They hoped the rebel commander knew what he was doing. If his plan worked, the last Zerg stronghold on Agria will be eliminated and the planet will be free. But if his plan failed, none of them will live to see another day.

* * *

**Larks' Crossing, Agria**

Sarah stepped out on to the plains of the battlefield, alone. She knew she had made the right decision for Nova and the others to stay in the station. She had the strongest psionic signature, so the Zerg will be attracted to her. Still, she couldn't help but wonder of any of Franklin's boys will get too trigger happy and intentionally use the auto turrets against her. She sighed, knowing there was a very high chance of such a possibility as she still had a long ways to go to earn the trust of those around her, but at least she was on her way.

By now, night had fallen, and the red head was grateful for the cover of darkness as she did not have to rely on her cloak. True the silver psionically attuned hostile environmental suit did not blend in as well compared to the blackness of night, but the Zerg also have somewhat impaired vision under the cover of darkness. Thus there was no need to waste her psionic powers in cloaking as she hunted the Zerg.

As she gazed across the field, she saw numerous Zerg creatures in the vicinity. The Ultralisks as usual were at the head of the attack spear, flanked on their sides by Roaches and Hydralisks. The Zerglings brought up the rear, with some infested terrans at their flanks. However it was clear they were not attacking. Rather, they seemed to be scavenging, as they had lost track of their prey earlier. All they knew was the terrans were in the area, but did not have an exact location where.

She reached up to her comm-link. "Franklin, I've spotted the Zerg. They're less than a mile away from the auto turret defense system."

"Can you lure them there?" Came the reply.

"I'll take care of that," she said calmly. "You just get ready to fire when I do. The small Zerg should be easy prey."

"And the Ultralisks? You are aware the turrets are essentially pop guns against them, right?"

"Just leave them to me. Are you sure the back-up generators won't lose power?"

"Positive. My boys have checked them thoroughly. Most of them aren't even scratched. As long as no Zerg attack the station, the generators will be just fine."

A new voice came on the frequency. "Sarah, are you sure you can handle it? It's not too late for me to come and help you."

"This is something I have to do alone, Nova. I have to start proving that I can fight my own battles without hurting my allies. You just sit back and focus on the turrets. The second a Zerg is within firing range, you push the button."

Sarah turned off the comm-link and peered into the distance again. By now, the Zerg were already starting to head towards her position. With such a high psionic signature, it would have made no difference if she tried to dampen it or not. Fortunately, this time she _wanted_ them to follow her.

She raised her rifle carefully, aiming at a Roach that was closest to her position. The cracking sound of a rifle shot was heard as the bullet pierced the creature's head, killing it instantly.

This immediately attracted the attention of the other Zerg, as they turned their heads around to see her, and roared in anger.

"Over here, freaks!" Sarah shouted, as she begun running towards the auto turrets, and the horde of Zerg monsters began chasing after her. Other infantrymen would have been running for their lives, scared out of their pants at this moment, but Sarah understood the Zerg better than just about anyone. Once they sense blood nearby, it tends to slightly impair their judgment, as they'll stop at just about nothing to feed.

Fortunately, her ghost training meant she had much higher levels of endurance in running, even though the standard marine could easily run the mile. Behind her, the Zerg had to start off slowly, as the Ultralisks couldn't run as fast as the Zerglings, yet they were placed in front. That did not make her journey a straightforward path, however, as Sarah was forced to run from tree to tree to avoid the Hydralisk spines being shot at her. This gave some of the Zerglings to get dangerously close to her.

Firing from her C-20 Rifle, she easily killed two of them as they attempted to close the distance, but a third one reached the other end of the tree she was hiding behind. Seeing a Roach also closing the distance and ready to fire, Sarah used her telekinetic abilities to raise the Zergling into the air. The Zergling struggled in protest, but to no avail its carapace was pierced by the Roach's acid saliva. In anger, the Roach burrowed underground and moved towards Sarah that way, but by now she was running again, towards the safety of the turrets.

With the help of psionic speed, Sarah was able to reach her destination rather quickly. It was only a slight drain on her psionic powers, as she only used it in bursts. She remembered she had used a similar ability when she was the Queen of Blades during combat, but this time she'll be using it the righteous purposes.

By now, the Zerg weren't far behind. In fact she was already taking cover behind a destroyed auto turret, partially hiding herself from view as the Zerglings closed in on her position and her comm-link went off.

"Sarah, we've got a lock on your position. The first Zerg units are within firing range of the auto turrets. Give us the signal when to proceed."

"Wait until I get as many Zerg in the area as I can, Nova," she said. "We have to make sure there's no chance for them to escape."

The suddenly Zerg roar from behind Sarah told her she had to make her move fast. The red head whirled around to see the Roaches and Hydralisks keeping their distance, as the Ultralisks came from behind to charge at her.

Sarah gritted her teeth in irritation as she knew the Zerg were fast learners. They had already seen auto turrets and are suspecting they had been led into a trap, so they're letting their heavy units do the work for them. Fortunately, they were dealing with the one person who had trained them in combat. She knew their strengths, but she also knew their weaknesses.

The ghost raised her arm and casted a psionic storm right in front of the Ultralisks. As they were charging towards her at full speed, they ran right into it. The roar of pain from the Ultralisks was compounded by the roar of anger from the flanking Zerg, as they immediately moved in towards Sarah. The red head fired an irradiation grenade from her rifle's attacked grenade launcher, as the Hydralisks shrieked from the radiation poisoning.

The Roaches, however, were not as foolish to stand still. Many of them immediately burrowed underground and moved towards Sarah to avoid the radiation, while some of the surviving Hydralisks began morphing into Lurkers and elements of Zerglings did the same into their Baneling morph. The completed ones already charged full speed at Sarah. Thinking quickly, she used her telekinetic abilities to lift the Baneling into the air and throw it at a nearby Ultralisk. The explosion blinded the Ultralisk, but Sarah knew due to its regeneration rate it'll regain its sight in less than a minute.

Other Banelings were getting close to her now. Some of them she shot with her rifle, but others weaved around and got through. Seeing the injured Ultralisk flail around desperately, Sarah unleashed inertia to force the Banelings back towards it, before firing a shot which set off an acidic explosion that crippled the Ultralisk for good.

"Franklin, enough Zerg are now within range of the turrets! Light them up!" She spoke into her comm-link.

Within the blink of an eye, the surrounding auto-turrets around her sprung into life, unleashing their deadly payload on the Zerg creatures. With so many Ultralisks still not fully recovered from Sarah's psionic storm, they were unable to close the distance as gauss bullets rained down on them from the turrets. Sarah added the fire from her rifle as most of the Ultralisks desperately tried to close in on her.

Once again, Kerrigan used her powers to create a psionic barrier to force the Ultralisks from getting close. Although this proved successful, the burrowed Roaches simply moved under the barrier and headed straight for her. Scowling in frustration, Sarah reluctantly dropped the barrier to deal with them. She knew the Roaches couldn't fight while burrowed, but the Lurkers certainly could, and they too were almost within range of her.

Sprinting away, Sarah saw some of the Lurkers make their move. But they weren't targeting her. Instead, they were using their subterranean spines on the auto turrets. Since there were no detectors nearby, the turrets could do nothing against them. With the Roaches now popped up from under the ground and chasing after her, Sarah had no choice but to fall back to the second line of defense turrets as those in the first line were destroyed by the Zerg.

"You have to get rid of those Lurkers!" Franklin's voice spoke over the intercom. "Those turrets won't last long against them!"

"I know," Sarah said grimly, as she threw a fragmentation grenade, killing several Zerglings in the process. "You just concentrate fire on the other Zerg, I'll deal with the smart ones."

The remaining Ultralisks by now had recovered enough to charge again, as the ghost desperately tried to slow them down by firing irradiation grenades from her grenade launcher. Given their size, this did little more than anger the Ultralisks further, as all the while the Lurkers began moving towards Sarah again.

Thinking quickly, Sarah aimed her grenade launcher at the Ultralisks' eyes and fired. As this was one of the few places on their body without thick carapace, the Ultralisks were instantly blinded by this. Without their sight, they began stumbling about, as Sarah used her telekinesis to push the Lurkers into their path, where they were trampled to death by their superior counterparts.

Suddenly, a Hydralisk spine whizzed past her, just narrowly missing her face. In her attempt to deal with the Ultralisks and Lurkers, a lone Hydralisk was able to sneak past Sarah. She raised her rifle to shoot, but the Hydralisk raised its scythe arm struck, instantly cutting her C-20 Canister Rifle in half. But any attempt to capitalize on the matter backfired, literally, as Sarah pulled out her Flak Pistol and fired into the creature's abdomen. As they carried explosive rounds, the explosion killed the Hydralisk instantly, and sent its body flying back across the battlefield, while the other Zerg continued to press against the auto turret defenses.

Sarah breathed a sigh a relief, suddenly grateful for the C-14 Gauss Rifle that Franklin had given her. The Flak Pistol wasn't meant for combat situations like this, and if ammo ran out, she'd be fighting with just her psionic powers alone.

Carefully, she withdrew the marine's weapon from her back and tapped her comm-link. "Hey Franklin, I ought to thank you for your donation."

"What happened?"

"Some Hydralisk trashed my rifle, so now I'm fighting with yours. Hope you don't mind."

"Well I knew giving it to you would come in handy one way or another. Hope you can handle it, though. It's not as versatile as your ghost rifle, I know that for a fact."

"I'm a quick learner when it comes to weapons," she assured, before suddenly frowning as she saw some of the auto turrets stop firing. "Why are they stopping?"

"The morons that built this defense system based it under the assumption no one could get past the first line. Most of the ammo were thus given to the auto turrets there. Now my boys are being forced to fire in shorter intervals to conserve ammo for the second line turrets."

"Well there's only a few Ultralisks left, so it shouldn't be a problem," Sarah replied, scanning the battlefield. The Zerg were regrouping further away, ready to make one final push towards her.

"Let's hope you're right. I still don't know how many Zerg got killed already. The second line isn't meant for such a concentrated attack, so if there's still enough Zerg to fight, you're going to have to do most of the killing."

"Don't you worry about it," Kerrigan assured, cocking the C-14 rifle. "Your boys gave me enough ammo for this. Just keep the bullets flying one more time, and I'll finish the job."

* * *

**Author's Note: For those of you who didn't catch it at the beginning of the chapter, the hybrid mentioned here is the same one that had been mentioned way back in chapter 4 (so if you have forgotten, please re-read that part). This hybrid will play its role in the story later on, so please be patient on that.**

**I hope you guys enjoyed reading this. Please review and I'll see you in the next chapter.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note: It is now time for the next update. This however will be the last one for a while because of my summer school I have to deal with, it gets very busy.**

**Don't know when the next update will be after this, but it definitely won't be soon.**

**Anyways I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please review!**

* * *

Chapter 16

**River of Light, Aiur**

"It is good for you to join us, executor Selendis," Mohandar announced, as the female executor's giant golden Carrier arrived at the River of Light. "Most of the Zerg attackers have been neutralized here, the rest have fallen back to their colony. We have tried to lure them towards the river again, but it appears they are no longer falling for it."

"Then we will go in and eradicate them in glorious combat," Selendis declared. "My Carrier fleet stands ready for your command, Hierarch."

"Our reinforcements have arrived in sufficient numbers," Artanis observed. "However, some of them must be redirected toward Zeratul's location."

"Our warriors are needed to reclaim our world!" Selendis protested. "We already have Observers in that area and they have reported no enemy activity!"

"Remember, young Selendis, the Zerg are not mindless," Mohandar reminded. "Just because their leadership is crippled does not mean they are unable to think for themselves. The Zerg colony to the north has remained quiet thus far, but that does not mean it will continue to do so indefinitely."

Selendis nodded in reluctance, as she ordered a few of the Warp Prisms to be directed away from them. "I can only hope what mighty Zeratul is searching for will benefit us."

"Zeratul has not told anyone what he is seeking," Artanis explained. "I do not believe he fully understands the journey he is currently taking. But that is something for another time. For now, we must scour the Zerg from the river."

"Hierarch, we are moving towards the outer defenses now," a Stalker on the ground reported. "The Zerg are massing from within."

Artanis gestured a slight nod towards Selendis on screen, and the female executor immediately complied. Almost immediately, the swarms of Carrier Interceptors left the hangars of the mighty Protoss ships. Hydralisks popped out of the ground to snipe them out of the air, but the cybernetic drones were far too quick and maneuverable for that. In seconds, their interceptor beams had reduced the Hydralisks to a pile of charred remains.

On the ground, the Protoss Zealots fought with tenacity for their homeworld as Zergling after Zergling fell to their psionic blades, but more continued to rush in. The Zealots were desperately trying to prevent the small creatures from rushing towards the Stalkers, all of them shooting the Zerg Scourges out of the air to protect the Carriers. High Templars had been brought forward to use their storm power, but the Zerg had smartened up and the Scourges were more widely spread apart to counter this.

Suddenly, some of the Stalkers were hurled back as the ground shook. Ultralisks popped out from beneath the earth, as the Zealots rushed in to slay these monstrosities. However, this allowed the Zerglings to rush past them towards the Stalkers. The High Templars did what they could with their storm power, but like the Scourge the Zerglings also scattered, many of them able to get in among the Stalkers.

"All Warp Prisms active phase mode, now!" Mohandar ordered. "Bring in the Colossi!"

As the towering Colossi warped in, their thermal lances opened up. Hydralisks and Roaches screamed in pain as many of them were unable to escape their deadly blasts. The Zerglings, however, immediately began their morphing into Banelings. From above, the Void Rays made short work of the Ultralisks, but due to their low armor, their prismatic beams were unable to fully power up against the Baneling cocoons. Most of them hatched successfully, but when they exploded in giant globs of acid against the Colossi, only a few of them actually toppled over. The rest simply vanished in a puff of smoke. The Zerg units seethed in anger as they saw Protoss Sentries advancing and escorting the towering mechanical guardians. The smaller robotic machines had generated hallucinations, as the Banelings sacrificed themselves over nothing.

By now, Immortals had also joined in the battle, their phase disruptors blazing. Zerg Infestors burrowed under the ground to avoid the fire, but the moment they surface most were immediately cut down. The ones that survived, however, were able to release their fungal growth before being killed, and their slime stuck to the Stalkers, temporarily preventing them from using their blink ability. This allowed the Overlords to move in and deploy their Zergling cargo to overwhelm them. Elsewhere on the ground, Queens had begun attacking the Protoss warriors with frightening effectiveness, now that they were on the creep which increased their movement speed.

"Corsairs! Protect our brethren!" Artanis commanded, as the swarms of Corsairs began summoning disruption webs to trap the Zerg Queens within. Unable to move, they were easily fried by the towering Colossi. Corruptors moved in to attack the Corsairs, but they lacked offensive capabilities and became targets of the Sentries' disruption beams. Some of them began morphing into Brood Lords, but Protoss Stalkers blinked into range and shot the aerial cocoons out of the sky before most of them could complete the metamorphosis.

Above, the Void Rays have taken out many of the Creep Tumors, as the Zerg creep began receding from the ground. As a result many of the surviving Spore and Spine Crawlers were forced to fall back, but many did not make it as their movement speed was greatly reduced when off the creep, and the Protoss Dark Templar caught up with them. Within minutes, many of once formidable Zerg defense structures were reduced to a pile of bloodied remains. Overlords moved in to excrete creep for the remaining Zerg Queens to place more Creep Tumors on the ground, but this was disrupted was the Void Rays destroyed some of the Zerg Spawning Pools. As a result, many of the Hatcheries lost the ability to produce Queens, and the Zerg defenders pulled back to defend the remaining Spawning Pools.

"Mohandar, concentrate fire on the hatcheries!" Selendis said. "Once we have cut off the Zerg larvae source, there'll be nothing left to stop us from reclaiming the River of Light!"

"It will be done," answered the Dark Templar.

From the command Mothership, Artanis launched the Scouts into the fray to provide cover for the Void Rays. Mutalisks were shot out of the sky by their anti-matter missiles, as the Void Rays concentrated fire on the Zerg production buildings. Within minutes, the hatcheries exploded in a pile of blood and guts.

"Executor, the Zerg are retreating!" A templar on the ground announced. "They're pulling the entire colony away from the River of Light!"

"Pursue them, my brethren!" Selendis ordered. "We may have gotten the sacred area back, but the Zerg must not be allowed to catch their breath! We cannot allow them to resettle elsewhere on our world!"

* * *

**Agrian Starport, Agria**

"All right everyone, the Zerg units have just left their worms," Jim observed, as he cocked his rifle. "We've got 30 min to remove the Virophages. Once we do, the Thors will come in and take out their Nydus worms."

"We're not stupid, Raynor," a marine scoffed. "Those buildings are just as dangerous to infantry as well. We get hit by that slime, we turn infested."

"I know that, but our suits will offer us some protection. I know they're not infestation-proof, but it'll give us a better chance."

"The Zerg units here haven't noticed us," a marauder reported. "The reapers can deal with the larvae since their bombs will kill them quickly. We'll deal with the Zerg units."

"Draw them out," Jim advised. "Force them out of the Virophage slime range. Lure them towards me if it gets too tough."

Some of the reapers have already begun firing with their P-38 Pistols. While this did minor damage against the Zerg, it immediately alerted all their units. Almost immediately, some of the larvae went into their cocoon metamorphosis.

"Reapers, destroy those eggs!" Jim ordered. "We can't allow any Mutalisks to spawn!"

As the reapers throw their deadly D-8 Charges, the Zerglings and Hydralisks moved in against them. Some of the reapers were cut down with the latter's spines, but the charges thrown did their job: most of the cocoons lay in a burning ruin.

The marauders opened up with their punisher grenades, then fell back as instructed, but the Hydralisks refused to be fooled and remained within the radius of the Virophages. The marines had slightly better luck, as the Roaches attacked them with their acid spit, but most did not bother burrowing, so they become victims from Jim's rifle, sniping from far away.

Raynor gritted his teeth in irritation. "All right, new plan! Marauders, force the Hydralisks to group together! I'll just have to get within range of the Virophages myself to take them out!"

"But your armor isn't as durable as ours!" A marauder protested. "You're more vulnerable!"

"It's just a chance I'll have to take," Jim replied, cocking his rifle, as he moved closer to the Zerg buildings. Some of the Zerglings charged towards him, but most of them were blown apart by the marauders. Those that survived Jim killed himself with his Needle Gun pistol. The Hydralisks still refused to budge from their positions, but the daring risks made by the marauders began to get them closer to one another.

"That's it boys!" Jim encouraged. "Now I'll deal with them!" Pulling the trigger on his commando rifle, an HEV bullet left the barrel and struck head on into a Hydralisk with such force that it pierced the brains of 6 of them all at once, killing them instantly. This drew the anger of the nearby Hydralisks, as they launched their deadly spines towards Jim.

The commander dove for cover behind the body of a dead Zergling as the Hydralisks closed in on him. Thinking quickly, Jim dropped a Hellfire Grenade at his feet and sprinted away, as the Hydralisks lunged at his position. Just as the Hydralisks turned around, the grenade exploded, as all of them screamed in pain from being caught on fire. Jim did not get a chance to catch his breath, however, as some of the Roaches began chasing after him, snarling in rage.

"Sir! Get down!" A marine shouted. Jim did as instructed, as the marine discharged a projectile from his grenade launcher. The explosion was so enormous that it knocked Jim off his feet, while the Roaches behind him were instantly killed. Jim walked up to the marine slowly.

"Thanks, I knew you boys wouldn't let me down," he said softly.

"Just kill those Zerg buildings and let's get the hell out of here," the marine said, disgusted. "Half the marines have already been taken by its slime."

The marauders continued to dish out their punisher grenades, but the lack of marine fire support meant none of them were in any position to set the demolition charges at the base of the Virohphage buildings. All of them had to be on alert for the Zerg. The reapers could provide fire against the Zerglings, but their pistols weren't of much use against the Hydralisks and Roaches.

Jim picked up his rifle and began sniping again, as the surviving marines flanked him to provide cover. By now, some of the larvae had begun to morph into Zergling cocoons due their faster metamorphosis rate, as some of the reapers' explosive charges exploded too late to prevent the Zerglings from emerging.

As the marines emptied their ammo into the Zerg creatures, Jim fired again and again at the Roaches and Hydralisks, none of them able to get within firing range of him before they were killed. As the last of them in the immediate area fell, he bellowed out an order.

"That's the last of them here! Set the charges and blow those structures!"

The marauders did as complied. Although still constantly spewing their deadly slime, all 3 Virophages at the front of the opening path had explosives at their base, set to explode in one minute.

"That's enough, the Thors will be able handle the rest. Mission accomplished boys, now let's get out of here!" Jim announced, as he and the remaining infantrymen fell back towards their vehicles a safe distance away. The Zerglings gave chase to them, but the enormous explosion from the Virophages meant it made no difference. Within minutes, gigantic Thors barged in, their artillery barrages laying waste to the remaining Virophage buildings from a safe distance, out of range of the slime to slow them down. The Mutalisks that flew in to deal with them fared no better, as the Thors were escorted by Goliaths. Because of their poor attack range, most were shot down by Hellfire Missiles.

Jim drove away on his Vulture while the marines, reapers, and marauders followed in their Hellions, away from the sounds of battle taking place.

"Well done, Raynor," Warfield spoke on the comm. "The Thors will have the Nydus Worms leveled in no time. After that, we can pour all our heavy units through that opening and wipe out the Zerg base. The Viking and Banshee squadrons are reporting that most of the Zerg presence at the starport has been neutralized, so once we're finished here, Agria will be cleared of Zerg infestation."

* * *

**Larks' Crossing, Agria**

Spent bullet shell casings clattered to the ground in a steady stream as Sarah repeatedly fired into the advancing Zerg with her C-14 Gauss Rifle. By now, the last of the Ultralisks had been killed by one of her psionic storms, but the remaining Zerglings, Roaches, and Hydralisks continued to press forward, despite their heavy support gone. The auto turrets around her continued to offer her fire support, but Franklin was right about the shortage of ammunition. Because the Zerg were advancing on a broad line, only the forward turrets fired, so as to conserve ammo for the rear ones in the 2nd defense line. Apparently the engineers that built the defenses only seemed to have factored in the possibility of moving turret ammunition from one turret to another in the same defense line, not different ones.

Because only the Hydralisks had the ability to morph into Lurkers, Sarah concentrated fire on them first, while the turrets continued to spray their deadly bullets on the Zerglings and Roaches. She had used quite a bit of fragmentation grenades already to prevent the Zerglings from completing their metamorphosis into Banelings, and had to choose very carefully for her remaining ones. Because the Banelings explode in a ball of acid when killed by conventional firepower, the only way to prevent that was to use the irradiation grenades. However the only stock of that was in her C-20 Canister Rifle, which the Zerg had shattered.

"I don't understand," Franklin's voice came over the comm again. "Although there's not much ammo left for the turrets, the scans indicate there's barely two dozen Zerg left. I know they're not stupid to keep fighting in such cases if they don't have the advantage of overwhelming numbers, so why are they still attacking?"

"The Zerg have a psychic ability to sense psionic abilities in ghosts from a distance," the red head replied. "If the psionic signature is big enough, they'll be attracted to it. Let's just say mine is big enough to keep them here."

"They are not going to be of much threat anymore," Nova's voice came onto the comm. "You've fought enough yourself, Sarah. A few of these boys can stay behind and keep the turrets firing, the rest of us are coming out to help you."

Kerrigan saw no point in arguing. During her time in training with Nova she had already seen the blond can be quite stubborn at times. Even if she told her not to risk her life, Nova wouldn't listen anyway. The two of them had already developed a very strong bond of friendship, and Nova said it was necessary ghosts or not, the women has to stick together as she had seen far too many men with too much testosterone for their own good.

"Go ahead then. I'll be waiting here for you."

By the time Nova and the others had arrived, however, they saw there was no need for assistance at all. Although some of the marines stayed behind at the turret manning stations, Franklin and the rest had arrived to find all the Zerg dead or dying, with Sarah cleaning up the latter with her combat knife and slitting their throats.

Franklin looked at Sarah as if she was completely out of her mind. The bayonets on the C-14 Rifles and combat knives were never meant to be used in actual combat. Although it's been proven that some of the smaller Zerg creatures had carapaces that could be penetrated that way, he had never once seen anyone actually use it against the Zerg in such a way.

Kerrigan must have picked up on his thoughts, as she walked over to him and smiled. "Remember, as ghosts we have special fighting skills that you infantry don't."

"Even so I still say you're utterly insane for killing them that way," Franklin replied, stepping over a Hydralisk, its body cut in half by gunfire.

Sarah put her knife away. "When I was a Confederate ghost, I was trained to fight a Goliath with just a knife, lieutenant, and it was backed up by almost 20 marines."

"And you actually succeeded in killing them all?" Off Sarah's nod, Franklin shuddered. "Well at least your skills haven't diminished since then."

Nova saw Sarah stiffen somewhat at that, and she gripped the handle of her rifle slightly harder, turning her face to Franklin. "Don't remind her of her time with the Zerg. She's been traumatized enough as it is over that."

"Not nearly enough!" One of the marines shouted. "The Zerg are nothing more than mindless bloodthirsty animals hell bent on killing everything! She turned them into an even greater threat by making them smarter!"

Nova was tempted to shoot the marine right then and there herself. Sarah risked her life and saved all of them, and all that seemed to have accomplished was them getting the impression she was trying to lure them into another trap by earning their trust. She knew the Queen of Blades was very manipulative, but she and Kerrigan were two completely different people.

"It's all right, Nova," Sarah said softly. "You and I both know I have a long way to go before earning the trust of others. I don't blame them for thinking that."

Suddenly, her eyes widened. Not at Franklin, but at what was behind him.

The Hydralisk had been cut in half by bullets suddenly managed to pull itself back up, possibly because it was playing dead to get her to lower her guard or something.

"Franklin, look out!" She shouted as the creature raised its scythe arm. Without giving him a chance to react, Sarah immediately shoved him aside as the Hydralisk swung. As the marine toppled to the ground in surprise, Kerrigan was unable to move fast enough herself to also avoid the blow. Because the creature had been weakened, its swing was not strong enough to cut a person in half. Nevertheless, it still tore a deep gash into Sarah's side.

"Sarah!" Nova screamed, as the other marines immediately fired into the Hydralisk's head, killing it right away. Kerrigan, however, collapsed onto the ground in a pool of blood.


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note: All right everyone, was able to pull a _little_ time out of summer school to get this chapter out. Not sure when the next chapter will come after this though.**

* * *

Chapter 17

**Xel'Naga Caverns Interior, Aiur**

"This sanctuary is more than what I had believed it to be, great one," a Dark Templar commented, as he walked along with his Protoss brethren deeper into the caverns. "Even in myth, I could not have ever believed what secrets this place could hold."

"Indeed," Zeratul replied, leading the way. "Zamara had ventured into this sacred place before, but she did not have the luxury of exploring it. She had sought something within here that could save the life of Jake Ramsey, as her presence in his mind was slowly killing him."

"Is that what we are searching for, Zeratul?" Another Dark Templar asked.

"No, young templar. Our mission is to do more than just save lives as Zamara did. We are here to seek out answers that could help us against the greater threat ahead. I must admit this is extremely difficult, as Zamara had warned me the Xel'Naga city is similar to that of a labyrinth, with tunnels connecting to countless chambers, many of them near identical in appearance. If we do not tread carefully, we could be lost within here forever."

Zeratul paused for a moment, in deep thought. Clearly the Xel'Naga had taken precautions against those who they did not see fit to enter the holy grounds. At the secret rear passageway, all he had seen was a flat area with a plethora of Khaydarin Crystals. Had Zamara not taught him about entering the Golden Mean into the crystals, the secret passageway never would have been revealed. It had been clear to him then that the Xel'Naga had wanted the Protoss to continue to establish a link with them, even though they had abandoned them on Aiur. This only reinforced the theory Zamara had told him on Ehlna about the Xel'Naga's plans for the Protoss species. Although many Protoss brethren were angered that their entire race was meant to be part of the Xel'Naga experiment, there were some who were inclined to understand the true nature of these tests.

Now, however, after the fall of Aiur and less than a third of the Protoss population that once inhabited it still alive, there were few who were interested in their creators. Most were struggling to simply survive. However somewhere in this underground city lies further clues for the future of the Protoss race, and they must be discovered as soon as possible. Although Zeratul knew he could not determine its purpose himself, he could always return to Zhakul and allow the holy preservers there to handle the task. His Protoss brethren did not require his skill for the retaking of Aiur now that the Queen of Blades is gone, and if Zamara was right, then forces beyond his understanding had a task far greater in store for him.

"Prelate Zeratul, the psionic emanations we are detecting are becoming stronger the deeper we move in these tunnels," A Dark Templar announced. "Is the source of these emanations what we are searching for?"

"You're being foolish," Another Dark Templar scoffed. "The psionic signatures are coming from the Khaydarin Crystals found throughout the caverns. Did you forget about the very 1st chamber we had come across? The gem pillar in the room seemed to have been forged completely from Khaydarin Crystals. The psionic energy exceeded anything we had ever encountered."

"This one may be different. Most crystals we have been able to detect the similarities in the energy they give off, despite the fact there are a countless number of variations in the crystals, many of them we are still unable to fully understand its purpose or potential. The signal I am detecting now appears to be coming from a different source."

"You are correct, young one," Zeratul observed. "I too detect a different energy coursing through this place. Its emanation is still faint, but I feel I have felt something similar before."

"What could it be?"

"It would appear as if it coming from something living," Zeratul replied. He suddenly dreaded what could be in there, as the signature bore a similarity to what he had encountered on a dark moon, where he had first learned of the hybrid threat by Duran, before nodding to the rest of the Dark Templar. Immediately, all of the Lenassa Nerazims ignited their curved warp blades, while the Zer'atai ones ignited their scythe warp blades. "I cannot tell from this distance, which could only mean whatever that is giving off such a reading is very deep in the caverns. Brace yourselves, noble templar, we may not be alone."

* * *

**Dominion Forward Base, Redstone III**

"Sir, our landing and base establishment have both been successful," General Madison reported, on the communications channel with Mengsk. "We have met only minimal resistance, but that could change at any time given the Zerg's behavior after Char."

"Raynor's victory on Char did have its benefits on my end," Mengsk replied. "With the Zerg leaderless, it's not likely they can fight effectively anymore. You'll be able to steamroll right over them."

"Yeah well they still aren't dumb enough to blindly venture out into the lava," the general explained. "It's not like some of my boys are happy about coming to Redstone III. They may be relieved that the Kel-Morians have all left the planet, but fighting the Zerg and dealing with the lava surges still doesn't sit well."

"You can tell them they're to obey my orders, I have my reasons for this operation."

"With all due respect sir, the Dominion still has plenty of minerals at its disposal. Our industrial complexes may have slowed down a little on production now that the Zerg invasion has been stopped, but they are still working hard to drive the Zerg back. They have all the minerals necessary to make it happen. Why get the rich mineral crystals here?"

"It's not about the minerals for building weapons. I need it for my experiments. The Dominion does not have much rich minerals at its disposal. But if you had bothered to pay attention to the crystal fragment analysis, you would have known that each fragment also contains traces of jorium. That is the main prize, and why I need this mining operation to continue."

"I thought there was a whole stock of them on that Avernus Station!"

Mengsk gritted his teeth angrily. "Raynor destroyed it. I had tried to use reverse psychology on that bastard, and he didn't fall for it."

"Sir?" General Madison looked confused.

"I purposely fortified New Folsom Prison to force him to devote all his men to help with the breakout. This would have left Avernus Station relatively undefended, and my secret strike force standing by there would have made off with the jorium and terrazine goods while Raynor foolishly wasted his time on New Folsom. Hell, they could have even stolen the Psionic Waveform Indoctrinator right from under Tosh's nose."

"But Raynor never attacked New Folsom."

"Don't you think I know that? I even purposely deactivated Nova's neural inhibitors! By giving her a choice in the matter, it should have made Raynor think I was using deception tactics on him! He was supposed to have sided with Tosh, not her!"

"Were you able to recover anything, sir?"

"Nova had done a thorough job there. The jorium stockpile, the terrazine tanks, and the indoctrinator had all been nuked. Fortunately, I was the one who had devised Project Shadow Blade in the first place. I still have the blueprints for the indoctrinator, so another can be built soon."

"But the spectres turned against you! Reviving the project will cause them to rebel again!"

"Because of Tosh! Nova's actions have removed him from the picture, so now my plans can proceed forward just fine. That's why I need you to mine Redstone III as fast as you can. Bring all the jorium you can extract off the planet."

Just then, Madison's comm-link went off. "Sir, we've got Zerg movements detected!"

"Attacking?"

"They will be soon, sir. Our scouts have detected they're amassing their forces in their hives. We need to pull back the SCVs for mining right away."

Madison gave Mengsk a look, and the Dominion Emperor sighed. "Kill the Zerg quickly, general. It is essential I have the jorium stocks as soon as possible. They will play their role in my reestablishment of the Dominion once again."

"I'll take care of it," Madison replied, before switching off the communicator. "Order the Siege Tank battalions into position. If the Zerg think they can just walk into our base and kill everyone, they're about find out just how wrong they are."

* * *

**Larks' Crossing, Agria**

"My boys don't like this one bit, Raynor," Franklin explained to the rebel commander at a communications console, with Nova and Sarah standing nearby. "Apparently she didn't lose all her abilities after that battle on Char."

"Please," Jim scoffed. "There was no guarantee that artifact could have worked at all, I think it's a little bit too much to expect it to have worked perfectly."

"But this just reinforces the fact she's more dangerous!"

"She saved your life, lieutenant. You can at least be grateful for that."

"I am, but I can't say the same for my boys. They don't like this fast healing ability she's got. Makes her really hard to kill."

"That's a good thing," Jim pointed out. "I would have thought you'd trust her more by now."

"I do, but being able to fully heal up in seconds from a Hydralisk slash that should have torn her in half did not rest well with the others. We all know the fast healing rate the Zerg have, but this is considered extremely fast even by their standards."

Jim thought back to Kerrigan's encounter with Zeratul on Ulaan, and how quickly her severed wing regenerated. If Franklin was right, then her healing speed was faster compared to the other Zerg, and that was still retained. It made him think if the other Zerg abilities are present within her.

If she still had their physical strength, it would certainly make people even more uncomfortable. This would reinforce Sarah's original point of how others saw her, still as the Queen of Blades with merely a physical appearance change.

He felt it was wrong to try to explain to the Dominion soldiers the Zerg were not always the bloodthirsty monsters they are now, he was having a hard time believing it himself. To see the Zerg actually fight for noble causes would cause everyone to believe they have to be hallucinating. Still, due to the Zerg blood in Sarah, it would take very little effort to convince them that the power would eventually corrupt her and she'd become their enemy again. True, the Zerg had attacked her just as they attacked everyone else when they invaded Agria, but it wouldn't surprise Jim if people argued that Kerrigan let the Zerg attack her on purpose to make them think she no longer has any ties with them.

Now he was unsure how people would react towards her. Clearly putting a bullet in her wasn't going to accomplish anything, and her psionic abilities are as strong as ever. People would certainly be frightened of Sarah, but that was the case even before she woke up. Now that it's been confirmed that the Zerg blood in her could be awakened, there's no telling what she could do.

"Jim, we both knew something like this could happen," Sarah spoke softly over the comm, snapping the commander out of his thoughts. "Everyone knew of the Zerg DNA still in me, and while asleep, everyone knew it could also wake back up. You knew all along that blood was capable of doing something."

"Yeah, but I also don't want to give the boys the impression they can now use you as the bait to venture out in the unknown," Jim countered. "The fast healing rate doesn't make you invulnerable, and while I'm glad you're ok, this was just one circumstance. You know as well as I do that there's no guarantee this healing power would kick in every time you suffered physical harm. After all these years of fighting the Zerg, everyone's constantly been trying to develop weapons to find a way to counter this healing ability."

"I would know," the red head said bitterly. "The constant experiments I was subjected to during my time with the Confederacy was to find a way to bypass it and go straight for the mind, killing the Zerg that way. While some worked, it was hell on my mind, used as a pawn for their control and domination. There are times I honestly don't know just _which_ species is worse: at least you don't see the individual Zerg fighting each other for positions of power."

Franklin raised an eyebrow. "You're saying they're better than us?"

"She has a point," Nova explained. "The Zerg may be ruthless, but at least they are a unified whole. You don't see any internal conflicts along with them. Sarah is merely saying if we are to survive, we have to put our differences aside. We all have to stand together."

"I was just about the say the same thing," Jim said over the communicator. "I know there's still plenty who don't trust Sarah, but this isn't about her here. It's not about me, it's not about any one of us individually. This is about the survival of the entire human race. Whatever this new threat is, if it wins, it'll kill everyone: the terrans, the Protoss, hell even the Zerg will die from it. None of us are strong enough to fight this alone, we all have to unite."

"Fighting alongside cutthroats that kill for money is hardly something I feel comfortable with," Franklin replied.

"I know how you feel, lieutenant. But you know as well as I do that desperate times call for desperate measures. This isn't an idealistic world, so obviously we have to make decisions that are we would consider going against our morals and ethics. The mercenaries I have may not have the morals and ethics like you and I do, but they're still people and even they are smart enough to know they'd have to strike strange deals with people they don't like to survive."

"All the mercenaries are exactly the same. They're fighting for themselves, and they aren't going to fight unless they can get something out of it. The longer they fight with you, the higher the price they're going to be striking."

"Mercenaries are still soldiers," Raynor countered. "Soldiers may be trained to obey orders, but they're not mindless drones. They have thoughts and consciences too. Yes they won't have as good morals and principles as the regular troops, but that doesn't mean they can't be influenced by them. The battle on Char had already convinced plenty of Dominion soldiers that I'm not the rebel your emperor made me to be. If I can get your boys to change your minds about me, I'm sure I can do the same for the mercs."

* * *

**Xel'Naga Caverns Entrance, Aiur**

"Admiral Urun, we have a Star Relic incoming!" A Templar announced.

Urun frowned. The majority of the Dark Templar warriors had pledged their services to the retaking of Aiur. All over the planet they had fought bravely against the Zerg and exterminating them. Those that did not come to Aiur had remained on Shakuras to protect the Protoss brethren still there from hostile invaders. Although the fleet had only minimal contact with Nerazims on Shakuras, there had been no reports that the Dark Templar homeworld had been subjected to hostile attack. It was also unlikely for internal conflicts on Shakuras right now, as the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss have agreed to temporarily set aside their differences while the task of retaking Aiur was at hand.

Similarly, it was also unlikely to be a Protoss rogue faction. The Star Relic ships were of Dark Templar design, and the only Khalai Protoss that had ever been so close to becoming like them were the Tal'darim. After their previous encounter on Aiur, it was clear that the Tal'darim were scattered and gravely weakened. It was highly unlikely they had any strength left for offensive operations.

Even if they did, Urun knew he already had an advantage at his disposal: Vartanil. He had once been a Tal'darim warrior, but unlike the rest of his brethren, he had managed to sever his connection to the Sundrop, thus freeing himself from corruption. It has been he who had helped Urun when the Tal'darim had attacked them, and thanks to his knowledge of the Tal'darim strengths and weaknesses, they had emerged victorious with only minimal losses. Thus if the Star Relic was hostile, the only other possibility was the Fist of Ulrezaj, but this seemed unlikely as well, as most of them had been defeated by Zeratul near Shakuras.

"Contact the ship immediately," Urun ordered. "I do not believe it is hostile to us, but we cannot rule out that possibility."

Suddenly, a voice came over Urun's communications channel. "Adun Toridas, Admiral Urun. I am Ataldis, one of the Alysaar Dark Templars of Ehlna. I bring news of the utmost urgency on behalf of the preserver Zamara."

"We are honored by your presence, noble warrior," Urun said calmly. "Zamara is one of the few Protoss preservers we have left and from Prelate Zeratul, we had learned about the conflict that had transpired on Ehlna. What is the dire news you bring?"

"This message is from Zamara herself, but it is for Zeratul only. Where is he?"

"He has gone into the caverns below. He had informed us of his journey to Ehlna, and that Zamara had convinced him to seek out answers in this sacred Xel'Naga city. I do not know what exactly he intends to locate there, but I do know it will play its role in the upcoming struggles to come. We are to remain and protect the cavern entrance from any hostile intruders that may pervert this holy land."

"Then I shall remain at your side and assist you should such an event occur," the Dark Templar replied. "Zamara had informed me that what Zeratul will discover on Aiur will provide further clues regarding the prophecy he had uncovered on Ulaan. However, I bring news to him of another mighty threat on the horizon, one that was thought to be extinguished, but now has risen once again."

* * *

**Author's Comment: I had gotten the Heart of the Swarm information released by Blizzard just like a lot of people did. Although some of that information conflicts with what I have, I want my readers to know that whatever I can incorporate based on that, it will be into this fic.**

**For the parts that I cannot however, that is another matter. This fic had been started based on what I knew about Heart of the Swarm then, not what I know now, so if it does not connect the dots like the real Heart of the Swarm, now you can understand why.**

**As always, please read and review!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note: Was able to pull a little time out of summer school to write this chapter. This one will foreshadow the fighting events of the later chapters to come. Hope you guys enjoy it.**

**Please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter 18

**Aiur**

The hybrid once again entered a telepathic state to speak to the Dark Voice. "Master, there is no doubt now. The Protoss may be arrogant and narrow minded, but there are still those who are intelligent enough to see parts of the greater threat posed to them."

"It does not surprise me. The ruse I had done there was never meant to deceive the Protoss indefinitely. I knew all along this day would come eventually."

"Fortune is still with us, though. The Protoss messenger has made it clear that the news he brings is only for Zeratul, and the Dark Templar is still exploring the caverns below. Do you believe he will act upon receiving the message?"

"He will. Ever since his encounter with Maar on Zhakul he has taken the matter of the hybrids much more seriously. Zeratul is no fool, and if he discovers what I had done, he will rally his brethren to neutralize him."

"The dark one had been recovering for months. I would have expected a being of his power to be ready to carry out your grand plans by now."

"He is almost ready for that, young one. His recovery is near completion, and I know the Protoss will never be able to reach him before then."

"What is your will, master? I stand ready to carry it out."

"See to it that Zeratul does not receive the message. My plans have already suffered a severe setback now that the terrans and Protoss have determined Kerrigan's importance, I do not wish for them to jeopardize my plans still further."

"I will personally lead the Zerg minions of this colony myself, master."

"I have more important tasks for you to carry out," the Dark Voice replied, before transmitting a telepathic neural message to the hybrid. When the creature opened his eyes in understanding, the Dark Voice continued, "The Protoss gathered outside the cavern entrance are slow to adapt to changing their traditions, so the Zerg will be able to handle the task. Gather their warriors at the hive cluster and kill them immediately."

* * *

**Redstone III**

General Madison was fighting on the frontline with his troops, firing his C-14 Gauss Rifle, as he and other marines cut down the swarms of Zerglings charging at them. The Siege Tanks on the high ground continued to offer artillery support, as Hydralisk after Hydralisk were blown to pieces by the power of their Shock Cannons. The Roaches had burrowed underground to avoid the attacks, but while they were capable of moving underground, they still had to resurface to attack, and most of them were killed before they had a chance to react. The ones that were lucky enough to survive, however, were able to get a few acid spits at the tanks before getting their heads blown off by the Marauders' Punisher Grenades. Nevertheless, reports were increasingly coming in of mechanical and power failures coming from the tanks, as the damage done to them was starting to accumulate.

Like Warfield, Madison too was loyal to his soldiers, and he believed it was wrong to sit back behind a desk in the Command Center while his boys were being slaughtered. The Zerg had a near infinite army, and when fighting them, there's no such thing as a commander would throw his soldiers into battle and do nothing himself. He had always hated the how the Confederacy had done it during their days, where the soldiers are expendable. In fact when he was just a young marine, he knew the Neural Resocialization process was about the only thing that kept his comrade marines from going into total mutiny. In war there would be casualties, and obviously sacrifices have to be made for the greater picture, but everyone has endurance limits. No soldier would fight indefinitely simply for someone else's gain without getting something in return. That was one of the reasons why the officer command chain in the Dominion military was somewhat unstable. All the junior officers want recognition and leadership, but few were willing to admit they don't have any real power. Most of that power comes from the very top, from Mengsk himself.

Madison frowned as he thought of his emperor. The latest Zerg attack wave had been repulsed, though another one will be coming soon. The junior officers were already barking out orders to hold the defense lines, and there was no need for him to step in. This gave him a few minutes to ponder in his own thoughts. He had been loyal to Mengsk ever since the formation of the Dominion, but for the first time his loyalty wavered somewhat. Like his soldiers he too knew the basic order of the military is to obey orders, but although they all swore an oath to protect the Dominion, this was not to prevent them from thinking. Otherwise, they'd cease to becoming humans and instead become mindless drones. While there were things he knew that Mengsk chose to keep secret from the public, and even from his own military, by now he had begun to suspect if some of what he had kept secret were to prevent his reputation from being ruined.

By now, there were very few people on the Koprulu Sector that believed his word about the UNN broadcast was fake. Indeed, analysts have probed the transmissions day and night, and could find no trace of what Mengsk had claimed in the press conference shortly after, insisting the transmissions were phony. Most of the Dominion core worlds were still in revolt over that, and the military was being hard pressed to put them down. Even the emperor realized killing the protestors would only cause the problem to escalate, as that would send the message to his people if they did not believe everything that came out of his mouth, they would die. Add in the broadcasts about what Raynor had accomplished on Char, the branches of the Dominion military was being subjected to a similar treatment.

This was among the reasons he had agreed for this mission. While he did not know exactly what his emperor had planned to do with the jorium, it was nevertheless Madison's intent to show the public that the Dominion military was far from incompetent war machine that Valerian had portrayed them as over the media. To that end, a part of the general almost felt slight sympathy for Raynor. For the last 4 years, he had been portrayed as the worst terrorist ever by Mengsk, and now the shoe is on the other foot. Now the media is humiliating Madison and the rest of the military, while portraying Raynor as a hero. A few of other Dominion officers felt the same way, finally understanding how it feels to be on the receiving end of the media's stick.

Madison put these thoughts aside, however, as an officer came up to him. "Sir, we're running low on the cache of minerals we brought with us. The Siege Tanks need the field repairs if we are to hold our line, and our processing facilities are smelting down the minerals as fast as they can to help with that."

The general nodded, understanding. "You want me to authorize the usage of the rich minerals we've mined so far?"

"I know this means it's going to take longer to mine what we need, sir. But if the Zerg attacks keep coming like this, what choice do we have? We came to Redstone III to mine the resources, not rid the planet of the Zerg. That's why our forces were built under the assumption we would only engage in minimal resistance—"

"And the Zerg are clearly not going to see it that way," Madison finished, before tapping his comm-link to speak to his engineers. "Gentlemen, what is the status of the separation of the jorium from the crystals themselves?"

"That wasn't part of the equipment we brought down, general. We came here based on the assumption we would just mine the resources and leave, then hand the crystals to someone else and let them take care of the separation."

Madison sighed in frustration. If he authorized the usage of the rich minerals, the rare jorium crystals would be lost with it. Mengsk may have agreed to temporarily halt the mining operation to deal with the Zerg, but he never agreed it would also be ok to lose the jorium crystals like that. Despite the lava flooding on the low ground every few minutes and efforts were made to lure the Zerg creatures to be burned alive there, the results fell short of expectations. Although there had been a few casualties on their own side for luring the Zerg this way, by now the Zerg were no longer willing to attack lone units when the seismic activity increases, knowing that this is a trick to get them to be killed by the magma.

"General, I know it's a tough call, but you have to make a decision," the Dominion officer said quietly. "If you don't authorize the usage, we'll only be able to last another 2 or 3 attack waves. And from the orbital scan reports, it's clear the Zerg have no intention of letting us stay here."

Madison clenched his fist, struggling with the fact that he had to disobey an order from Mengsk, before nodding. "Do it. Have the SCVs bring the rich minerals to the processing facilities, but only the minimum necessary to conduct field repairs. If the Zerg aren't going to let up, I want to be off Redstone III as soon as possible."

* * *

**Aiur**

With a flash of bright lighting, the hybrid teleported itself to another location on Aiur. From the distance, it saw something it did not expect: a terran base. It was not located anywhere near any important sites, but it was nevertheless confusing to see terrans here. With the Zerg and Protoss still fighting all over the planet, they would be easily caught in the crossfire.

Some of the figures patrolling the base, however, caused the hybrid's eyes to narrow in anger, before blinking to a safe distance and opening communications to his master. "You were correct about the terrans, master. They are experimenting in matters _far_ beyond their narrow understanding."

"It should come as no surprise to you. Like the Protoss, the terrans also have their tendencies not to embrace change, but those that do tend to succumb to total insanity. At least with the Protoss, they have a far greater degree of knowledge and are willing to explore more deeply into the matters at hand before entering the unknown."

"These gestalts I have heard from them is a total perversion to the concept of purity! The terrans possess neither the purity of form of the Protoss nor the purity of essence of the Zerg!"

"Do not be so quick to underestimate them, my creation. The fact that they were able to forge such a being is still a testament to their capabilities. The Protoss had once arrogantly believed their superior technology was enough to overcome any and all terran hostilities, but in many cases they paid dearly for such thinking. Make no mistake: the terrans may not be as powerful, but they are still dangerous."

"I await your command. What is thy will, master?"

"This terran presence on Aiur must be cleansed as quickly as possible. You are to scour the area and locate any minions at your disposal for the task ahead."

"The terrans wisely chose a location that is nowhere near any Zerg hive clusters. Apparently they are aware the force they have is in sufficient to fight such quatities of Zerg. It would also appear they have no intention of staying on Aiur very long. I have seen the defensive positions they had established around their base, and much of it can be removed and sent off world quickly."

"Then you will just have to improvise with the band near your location. It would appear that some of the terrans have plans that seem to somewhat rival that of my own, although on a much smaller scale. I must admit I find such a plan foolish in their ambition, and inevitably their plans must turn against them, but that does not happen until the long run, which I no longer have the patience to see it through."

"I will ensure their plans do not come to pass, master."

The Dark Voice gave a sound of approval to the hybrid. "There is a group of Tal'darim survivors close to your location. Just as Maar was able to corrupt Protoss guardians on Zhakul, you will be given the task of doing similarly for the Tal'darim. They had already been corrupted in the past and still carry the scars of that corruption. Therefore, it should be easy for you to turn them to your side and allow them to fight for you."

"Very good, master. I will go there immediately to take up the task ahead."

"Do not reveal yourself to the terrans, young one. Just as not all of the Protoss have realized what truly awaits them, the same is true for the terrans. And unlike the Protoss, the terrans are much more difficult to be convinced, as once they believe in something it requires a mighty force to for them to heed a message of another perspective. As such, despite Kerrigan's defeat on Char, it is clear they still perceive her as the true threat. It is my intention to keep them thinking in such a way. As long as the terrans continue to tear themselves apart by their internal conflicts and power struggles, it will continue to offer us the advantage in our plans."

* * *

**Agria**

Jim was on the communicator console with Warfield. By now, most of the Zerg hive cluster on Agria has been destroyed. Without their main supply of hatcheries to supply the larvae, the Zerg presence at the starport could no longer be reinforced, and therefore could be taken care of rather quickly. He had already promised Dr. Hanson that once the starport has been cleared, he'll give the green light on the refugee transports on Haven. The Agria colonists of course will be given top priority, but the refugees from other world were free to come along as well. Before the Zerg attack, the planet had been quite beautiful as it was among the Dominion's principal botanical preserves. It will certainly take a while to restore it back to its former glory, but Ariel knew most of her people were willing to take on the task of a little reconstruction.

Nova was in the room with Jim, still somewhat confused about why she had been called to the conference. She was a fighter, and had little time for politics. In fact such matters greatly irritated her, and that was among the few reasons she was glad of her soldier status during her time spent with the Dominion. Sarah had told her the same thing during her time in the Confederacy, but she still would have preferred politics than having Confederate scientists poke at her brain for ways to control and influence individual Zerg.

"Raynor, the attack on the starport has already begun," the general announced. "So far there does not appear to be any signs of trouble, the Zerg are retreating all along the lines. They have no more adequate air support, and no hope of receiving significant reinforcements of any kind. All they can do now is try to make our victory cost as high as possible before we kill them all."

"I'm glad for that, general," Jim replied. "Most of the hive cluster here has been taken care of. Kerrigan is out there with some of the men you left behind to take care of the stragglers, though many of them seem to be staying away from her and letting her do the work alone."

"Don't be surprised. She had been the Confederacy's deadliest assassin before being taken by the Zerg. My boys may be arrogant, but they're still smart enough to know not to underestimate their enemies. Even if she lost all her power from when she was the Queen of Blades, her fighting skills are just as deadly as Nova's, if not more so. Most of the men that know Nova are well aware she is a force to be reckoned with, and were always cautious to avoid getting on her bad side. Having a ghost even stronger than her would scare the living hell out of them if they set off Kerrigan's temper."

"Trust me, that isn't going to happen. Sarah is still trying to make up for everything done as the Queen of Blades. I just wish she'd let it go. She and that Zerg monster are two completely different people, but Sarah just won't admit or even believe it."

"None of us know the answer to that. Everything we've learned about infestation is only physical, never mental, and all your Protoss buddies seem to care about is killing the infested instead of learning, not that I can blame them of course."

Jim shook his head, frustrated. The only one that could know how the infestation really works is the Zerg Overmind, so it's essential to get to Aiur as soon as possible. However he also didn't want to abandon the revolution against Mengsk. Although the Protoss must be pushing the Zerg back all over Aiur, there's still no telling just how long it's going to take before their homeworld is cleared of Zerg. Sarah had told him that although the majority of the swarm had their primary base of operations on Char, there was nevertheless still around 5 billion Zerg on Aiur. When his Char invasion began to succeed, she had recalled many of them off the planet to assist in driving off the terran intruders, but left just under 2 billion to remain on Aiur should the Protoss mobilize their forces to take their homeworld back.

Therefore, Jim knew that even if he went to Aiur right now, he would arrive in the middle of a battlefield with Protoss and Zerg forces still battling it out all over the planet. While he did want to know more about the prophecy, he also knew there was no way the Zerg would just let him go to the Overmind's corpse for that. Zeratul himself only established a slight foothold on Aiur, and the Zerg immediately mobilized their forces against him, perceiving a threat to their former master. The last thing Jim wanted was to subject his Raiders and his allies to a bloodbath there.

As such, the best course of action for the moment is to return to the revolution at hand and gather some more allies to his cause. Once enough have been assembled, he could then go to Aiur to help the Protoss.

"General, right now we need to briefly turn our attention to the Dominion again," Jim announced. "We aren't strong enough to take on the Dominion fleet, we need more allies."

"Can't you contact your Protoss buddies for that?"

"The victory on Char most likely will mean they'll help me in my endeavors, but that's not going to happen until they've gotten their homeworld back, so we need to look for allies elsewhere."

Warfield snorted. "And how the hell you plan to pull that off? You've hired virtually all the mercenaries and freelancers before we even undertook the Char invasion. You going to turn to the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate now?"

"You said you were willing to believe my judgment, even though you don't believe the prophecy, general. I know how you feel about striking an alliance with them, but there are times we face a threat so great that none of us can prevail alone, and that applies to our enemies as well. Sometimes to deal with a threat like that, we just have to make a temporary alliance."

"I am also a man of honor, Raynor," Warfield insisted. "At least Mengsk hid it quite well for his practice of slavery. The Kel-Morians on the other hand practice it much more publicly, and my boys will go nuts if you strike an alliance with them. The Umojans may be anti-Dominion, which would suit the Raiders a little better, but you know as well as I do they are a giant spy network. They'd never honor such an alliance."

"And that is why I'm not saying I'm going to do what you think I'm going to do. I have another source of allies in mind." Jim then turned to Nova. "How well do you know security defense system at New Folsom?"


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's Note: All right everyone, since I left you off with a foreshadowing last chapter, I thought it might be good to explain a little of it here.**

**This chapter is a nod towards Guardian54's fic "Supreme Commander: Koprulu Sector". For those of you who have read it, this idea is somewhat inspired by his missions on Haven.**

**Personally, until I read his Haven chapter I did not believe it was possible to do "Safe Haven" and "Haven's Fall" at the same time, but he proved me wrong.**

**Thus it had been my intention to do something similar regarding the choice missions "Breakout" and "Ghost of a Chance". From what I pieced together from the cinematics and interactions with specific characters after each mission, it would appear siding with Tosh was the correct choice.**

**However I simply couldn't find a way to make his character work, and in any case Nova's character seemed much more deserving of character development, and that is why this fic had begun based on the assumption Jim had sided with Nova instead during that mission branch.**

**As Nova is part of the Raiders now and will fight for the liberty of others, I thought it would be a good idea to return to the New Folsom choice and revisit what would have been so.**

**Thus I hope you enjoy this chapter I made. Please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter 19

**Agria**

Nova hesitated, somewhat uncomfortable about the topic that brought her and Jim face to face in the first place. "I've been to New Folsom quite a few times to send the Spectres I captured to be placed in cells, why do you ask?"

"Raynor, you planning to bust the prison open?" Warfield asked.

The commander nodded. "I know there are the dangers in letting them out of the cage, that's why I sided with you over Tosh, Nova. But Tosh was right about one thing: that prison must be full of people that ever raised their voice against Mengsk. Tychus told me that the facility holds thousands of inmates, you can't honestly expect me to believe every one of them is a psychopathic killer."

Nova nodded slowly. "Of course not, Jim. When I said that to you back then, it was merely to get you to stop Tosh and his Spectres. Contrary to what you might think, the Dominion citizens are far from mindless drones. I remember the people there now that my Neural Inhibitors have been removed. The ones that I told you were psychopathic killers account for barely three percent of the total."

"So what were the rest?"

"For the most part, I'd say scientists, philosophers, and free thinkers. Mengsk concluded on those were the types of people who challenged him and he didn't want, but also couldn't kill. The scientists' skills were too valuable and he could have uses for them someday, while the philosophers had a great influence over the public. If Mengsk killed them, he'd just turn them into martyrs, and they'd end up posing an even greater threat to him in death. Therefore, Mengsk kept them alive and put them in New Folsom because he knows eventually their reputation would fade and they'd be forgotten."

"General, we may be able to acquire more than just soldiers to the revolution," Jim pointed out. "Tychus told me New Folsom used to be an industrial production planet, but the surface conditions made that virtually impossible. It took 4 attempts just to build the mine because the planet's crust kept shifting, and the casualty list for that was long enough. That's why it was just too expensive to maintain it as a mine, and the Confederates converted it into a prison instead."

"That's true," Warfield admitted. "After the Dominion was established, the prison was used for the same purpose: using forced laborers for mining."

"I've only seen the mining a few times myself," Nova explained. "But it appears to be something needed for neosteel production, and we all know that is used for Dominion ships, vehicles, body armor, and buildings."

"Then the people there would welcome us if we let them loose," Jim concluded. "Tychus told me the conditions there were hard enough as it is. He was treated slightly better than the others were, though I didn't think it would be due to Mengsk using him as a pawn."

"The prisoners there are mostly expendable," Warfield explained. "I visited the prison a few times myself before the Zerg invasion. Only the scientists are given some measure of protection, their knowledge being their only bargaining chip. All the others are sent to some of the most dangerous parts of the mine, and if killed, the Dominion just sends more people in to get the goods. Once the material is acquired, they're simply sent to the production facilities located right next to the mine, where they are nearly worked to their deaths to build the Dominion's projects."

"How bad are we talking here?"

"Before the war began, I'd say probably 200 to 300 deaths a day. When the Zerg invaded and Mengsk ordered the industrial complexes to step up production, that number jumped to the thousands. Normally the prison complex is supposed to house only around 3500 prisoners. Before you and I met up for the Char invasion, there were over 800,000 prisoners there, and more were still pouring in."

"Good, we'll be getting a major boost to our numbers if we bust it open. Since you mentioned the production facilities, exactly what's being manufactured there?"

"Given the fact how much we all rely on the neosteel, it'd range anywhere from infantry CMC armor to Minotaur-Class BattleCruisers. New Folsom's environment may be extremely dangerous for neosteel production, but it's still got the richest elements for it. Mar Sara and Chau Sara are both safer and also have enough of the material for neosteel, but they're buried much deeper underground and therefore are tougher to mine out. You factor in the time it took for the Zerg to overrun the Dominion worlds, you can see why the mining on New Folsom suddenly became so important."

Jim nodded in understanding. "General, what do you think the chances are we can also acquire the weapons built there as well?"

"I'd say reasonably well. The prison's probably locked down to prevent the Zerg from attacking it, but even they know of what had happened on Char. With the Zerg now leaderless, it's likely Dominion security will lower their guard a little bit. No Zerg ever attacked them during the invasion, and now there's no one to order them to."

"The weapons we acquire are going to be useless without the ammunition to go with them," Nova pointed out. "My last few trips to New Folsom saw munitions factories being built next to the processing centers where the neosteel was being produced and the weapons made from them. Those factories came online about a year ago. By the time I contacted you about Tosh, those factories were working around the clock to supply to Dominion fleet with the arms necessary to deal with the invasion."

"You think there'd still be large stocks of ammo there?" Jim asked.

"You said it yourself it'll still be a while before the Zerg can recover," the blond ghost replied. "The Dominion military has its times of arrogant thinking, and I'm sure by now they'll be under the impression they can take their time in manufacturing the arms and ammo and delivering them to the fleet since there's no Zerg threat anymore. And since you turned your attention to the Zerg after your broadcast on Korhal, the media has made it clear your revolution went silent. I doubt they'd be expecting an attack at the prison."

"If we're going to do this, we have to do it quickly," Jim said. "Most of the Zerg have been cleared from Agria already, I'm sure the surviving Agria marines can handle the stragglers. The starport will be cleared in a few more hours. Once we do that, get everyone up to the ships immediately. I want us to warp jump New Folsom as soon as possible. Every second lost here only increases the chances that by the time we reach New Folsom, they'll have shipped out the goods, and I don't want to miss this opportunity."

* * *

**Xel'Naga Caverns Entrance, Aiur**

Zekrath fired from the ion cannons of his Phoenix fighter, as Urun and the other Phoenixes continued to provide fire support for the Protoss ground warriors. Without the ability of long range attack, the Mutalisks were rapidly being shot down, but more continued to take their place. The Zerg were smart enough not to use their Scourges because they were ineffective against smaller Protoss ships, and instead used Corruptors instead. Many of them had already morphed into Brood Lords, but others remained in their original state, as the Brood Lords have no defensive capabilities against aerial opponents.

"Do not allow the Zerg to enter the caverns!" The templar ordered. "We must hold our positions at any cost!"

Scouts had also joined in the battle, their anti-air missiles adding to the destruction of the Zerg flyers above. But the Scouts did not had as durable armor as the Phoenixes, and the Corruptors used their corruption ability to cover the Protoss ships in slime. Many of them were unable to maneuver as quickly, and they fell victim to the Corruptors' parasite spores.

On the ground, the Zealot warriors again fought bravely against the Zerg ground units, but many of them were losing power to their psi generated plasma shields as they couldn't recharge fast enough due to the constant fighting. Attempts were made to warp in Probes to build Shield Batteries while the Warp Prisms enter phase mode to act as a mobile Pylon, but while the Probes could be brought in relatively quickly, the Zerg quickly caught on what was happening, and the partially built Shield Batteries were destroyed by Zerglings.

Stalkers continued to blink back and forth to find a way around the battlefield, but many of them were forced back as the Zerg Lurkers moved into position and attacked them from beneath the earth with their subterranean spines. The Observers that had been brought with them had been mostly shot down by Hydralisks as enough Overseers were able to get through the screen of Phoenixes and Scouts, and this forced most Protoss ground warriors to fall back towards the cavern entrance, out of range of the Lurkers' spines. However, as the Lurkers did not possess underground movement capabilities, they had to resurface to move within range. Zealots used their psionic blast ability to charge up their movement speed when this happened, forcing the Zerg to divert some of their minions to protect the Lurkers while they were above ground.

More and more Zerg were forced to be diverted away in this task, however, as the Protoss Sentries warped in. Using the hallucination abilities, they were able to make multiple copies of Zealots, Stalkers, and Immortals. As there was no way to tell which were real and which were fake, the Zerg minions had no choice but to attack them all. Other Sentries used their force field ability to cut off the Zerg attackers, and with the mighty Colossi warping in, most of the Zerglings and Hydralisks were roasted by their thermal lances.

Once again, the Roaches burrowed underground to avoid the attacks and to get around the force fields, as the ground shook. Zerg Ultralisks were brought in. Although they too could not break the Sentries' force fields, their hardened carapace provided a cover for the other Zerg to shelter behind against the Colossi attacks, as they knew the force field effect was only temporary. From above, Urun scowled in anger as massive Zerg creatures protected their weaker counterparts, and the graviton beams built into their Phoenix ships were never designed to lift a creature that heavy.

"Release your storm powers at once!" Ataldis ordered from his Star Relic. Immediately, the area lit up with cracks of blue lightning, as the High Templars focused their psionic powers and unleashed the storms. The combined might of the storms and thermal lances proved too much, and many of the Ultralisks finally gave way. Those that survived tried to burrow underground, but as they were among the most massive of the Zerg strains, their burrowing time took longer compared to their smaller strains. This got a few of them to be decimated by the Scouts' photon blasters, as well as the Sentries' disruption beams.

However, their sacrifice served its purpose, as when the Scouts turned to the Ultralisks, their young and smaller counterparts immediately took their place. While much weaker in comparison, the Pygalisks were much more numerous in number, and could move much quicker. They were also extremely agile compared to the Zerglings, and while the former were being roasted by the hundreds by the Colossi, enough Pygalisks were able to avoid some of the thermal lance beams and get right under the towering Protoss machines. Although their Kaiser Blades did less damage even compared to Zergling claws, the Colossi were designed to pick off their targets at a distance, not engage them at point blank range. As a result many of them were forced to retreat, but their slow speed meant the Pygalisks were able to catch up to them with ease. The Immortals did what they could against them with their phase disruptors, but as the Pygalisks did not possess heavy attacks, their hardened shields could not activate and this made them much less effective in battle.

With the Stalkers blinking back to deal with the Roach threat that were increasingly surfacing from behind the lines, the Protoss warriors were slowly being pushed back towards the caverns' main entrance.

"We need more reinforcements now!" Urun shouted from his Phoenix. "We're not going to be able to hold our positions like this!"

"All our other brethren are still engaged against the Zerg elsewhere on Aiur," Zekrath reported. "The Shelak Guardians are doing their duty to protect the entrance, as Zeratul requested."

"It is not enough. If the Zerg attacks continue like this, we'll all be wiped out," Urun pointed out. "We must prevent them from reaching the entrance by any means necessary."

"Then we will simply have to break our original fighting tradition in times of emergency," the Shelak leader said, before sending a signal to his warrior brethren and the Warp Prisms. "Awaken the Purifiers, Vindicators, and Soul Hunters. Their services are needed now."

"What is this, Zekrath?" Urun demanded. "Such Protoss are only myth! You send word to warriors that do not even exist?"

"All myths contain an element of truth. The Shelak was part of the Judicator Caste, and we are still represented for our leadership roles in the Hierarchy. The Judicator Caste had banned the Xel'Naga teachings and archival access, the Shelak was the only exception. As we continued to acquire a greater understanding of our fathers, we had also acquired the ability to understand the necessity to break old Protoss traditions. The Purifiers, Vindicators, and Soul Hunters were based on the terran combat characteristics, and as a compromise such an act was kept secret, to be revealed to the Protoss only when the time is right, or during the direst of situations."

* * *

**Dominion Base, Aiur**

General Ridgeway looked out on the battlefield, disgusted. He still didn't fully understand why Mengsk had sent him with the gestalt soldiers to Aiur. Unlike his son, Mengsk was no archeologist and had no interest in Protoss religious artifacts. All he wanted was to rule his Dominion, which was just fine until Raynor's broadcast about what had _really_ caused the fall of Tarsonis. Now, although the Dominion military were finally starting to gain control and beginning to put down the riots from its citizens, there was no denying the evidence. Even some of the Dominion's own military were beginning to question why they were still serving under their emperor.

To an extent, he felt the same way, but despite the past, the fact remained that Mengsk had helped the people of the Dominion grow strong again after the Brood War. True part of that reason is because the Zerg simply vanished from sight during those years, but they were only one factor. Now that the Zerg have returned to kill them all, the public would want to know just what their emperor was capable of.

After Char, many of the Dominion officers that weren't part of Valerian's invasion force tried to justify their actions by saying that with the Zerg spreading so quickly, the first priority had to be defending the Dominion worlds, while taking the fight to the Zerg was to happen after those worlds had been secured. However this didn't fly as reporters pointed out that the Zerg attack waves continued to pour in, and therefore under such logic the Dominion military would have been forced to defend their worlds indefinitely. He had stood by the Dominion because he felt it was impossible the military could be that incompetent, but when the reports came in that the Dominion fleet would have been annihilated in the Char invasion had it not been for Raynor's leadership, he began to have his doubts.

Even worse, even if they do achieve victory over the Zerg on the worlds they had overrun, it won't mean as much anymore. With the Queen of Blades defeated, the Zerg leadership has been crippled. Now the media will see this as nothing more cleaning up the stragglers as the public will think the Zerg are no longer capable of fighting effectively, even though Ridgeway knew otherwise.

Similarly, thanks to Raynor's broadcast on Korhal, the public now knew of the existence of psi-emitters. Of course Ridgeway never felt their usage was a good idea to begin with. Back during the days of the Confederacy, the plans were to use the emitters to lure the Zerg into taking care of their enemies. Instead, the numbers lured in were far beyond the Confederate military's ability to handle them. It was upon this fact that Mengsk had used the emitters on Tarsonis, knowing the Confederacy would be destroyed this way.

Now that this news has been made public, the media branches have all announced that in the event the Zerg all gather at a place to be conveniently destroyed by the Dominion forces, the speculation would be that the Dominion used the emitters in such an extent. While many Dominion officers felt this would still give them the recognition that they were competent, Ridgeway quickly pointed out that the Zerg's advantage had always been overwhelming numbers. Even if leaderless, that factor still remains formidable in war.

He was deeply frustrated with the fact that the Psi Disruptor had been destroyed on Braxis. When the Dominion took control of the ice world and rebuilt its defense systems, they had found the site of where the UED had positioned it. It had been destroyed by the Zerg because the Psi Disruptor had posed a serious threat to them, disrupting their telepathic communications to one another. Despite careful inspection of the site, the Dominion engineers had deemed its wreckage unsalvageable, and impossible to reverse engineer from its rubble. With the Confederacy destroyed, there was no one left who could provide any clues as to how to build another one like it.

If only the Dominion had found the Psi Disruptor sooner! The trouble with the Zerg would have been taken care of easily! All they had to do was lure them to a location with the emitters, then turn on the disruption signal and the Zerg would have ended up killing one another. The Dominion would then move in and clean up the stragglers, and virtually no casualties at all would have been on the list.

As it stands, all they had at their disposal were the emitters. While it could be used to destroy Raynor and his raiders, the problem was it required an inside man to infiltrate his organization and plant the emitter. Before the Zerg invasion, this wouldn't have too difficult, but as long as he had the Dominion's strongest ghost at his side, infiltration was virtually impossible. No Dominion ghosts have ever succeeded in hiding their thoughts from Nova, and Ridgeway knew Raynor would be on the lookout for Mengsk to strike back at him after the way he humiliated the Dominion emperor.

Ridgeway turned his thoughts away from this, as his comm-link went off. "Sir, we're going to need to pull most of our men into the base perimeter."

"What's going on?"

"Although there's Protoss and Zerg forces battling it out all over the planet, it appears we have been spotted. A nearby Protoss base seems to be mobilizing their forces against us."

Ridgeway shook his head. "And here I was thinking the Protoss will show bigger leniency towards the terrans. Lock and load boys, we're about to have company."


	20. Chapter 20

**Author's Note: Hey everyone! Sorry about the delay in chapters. Summer school has been absolutely busy as hell, with no let up of any kind, and it's only going to get worse from this point on. I was lucky to squeeze out enough time to write this chapter out, so hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as my other chapters (and plus deep down I had kind of hope the fic would have reached like 100 reviews by now, but it didn't).**

**Again, I apologize for the wait in this update, but academics have to come first. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter and I'll see you in the next one.**

* * *

Chapter 20

**Bridge, Shield of Aiur**

Artanis looked down at the console and read the reports that has been constantly pouring in from the Observers, recording everything they could find on the battlefield, and providing tactical data for the Protoss ground and air forces. The battle had been turning out quite well for the Protoss on Aiur. When they had first set foot on their homeworld for reclamation, the orbital scans from the Motherships had indicated there were approximately 1.7 billion Zerg still on Aiur. When it became clear the Protoss foothold could not be dislodged, the Zerg had concentrated their forces at Antioch and the Overmind's final resting site. Some 250 million Zerg defenders were still entrenched in the Protoss capital city, with 600 million more protecting their dead master.

This was exactly the reason Artanis ordered that those two targets will be the last to strike, as enough Protoss had to have securely settled on Aiur for the assault to be a success. Despite the protests of many Khalai brethren wanting to see their capital liberated as quickly as possible, most were content to settle for liberating the rest of the Aiur for the time being.

The remaining 850 million Zerg were spread all across the planet. With almost all of the primary Zerg hive clusters concentrated at Antioch and the remains of the Overmind, the other Zerg on Aiur were divided into secondary and tertiary hive clusters. The largest of these was the hive cluster at Scion, at 25 million strong, but the province had already been liberated, although orders had been issued not to repopulate it yet Aiur must be completely purified first.

By now, the Observer reports have recorded some 661 million Zerg dead. This came as a great satisfaction for the Zerg killing 70 percent of the Protoss population on Aiur, but a Zerg army in the millions could be replaced almost overnight if they were decimated, the Protoss could not. To that end, every Protoss warrior fallen would be crucial when the final phase of the reclamation began. Although without their leadership the Protoss casualties had been lighter than what had been expected, hundreds of thousands of Khalai Protoss have already found their damaged bodies been transplanted into the cybernetic bodies of Immortals to be fed back into battle. The Nerazim Protoss fared better, but they too had thousands of Dark Templar fused into the cold robotic shells of Stalkers. Despite more than 75 percent of the scattered Zerg had been cleansed, the continued Zerg resistance had nevertheless killed more than 14 million Protoss already.

However, such battlefield statistics were not what concerned Artanis. Instead, he had found something else interesting recorded by an Observer that strayed away from the sounds of battle, searching for Protoss survivors on Aiur.

Although the recording was very brief, there was no doubt that it had confirmed the presence of a terran base. Given that no terran had set foot on Aiur since its fall and the death of the Overmind, Artanis knew this meant the group of terrans had arrived only recently. Prior to this, the last terrans on Aiur belonged to Jim Raynor, and he had assisted the Protoss armies in slaying the Zerg Overmind. However his forces too had suffered greatly, and by the time Zeratul returned to Aiur and encountered Tassadar again, many of the dilapidated terran structures had been infested. All of the terrans encountered since the invasion begun have been infested ones, and the Zealots and Dark Templars have taken care of that.

There was no way that some of Raynor's forces could have survived on Aiur for the past 4 years. He and Fenix had defended the Warp Gate to allow most of the Khalai Protoss to escape to Shakuras. Artanis knew Raynor was a man of honor, and he would never simply abandon the soldiers under his command to the Zerg. If they had been his men, he never would have left Aiur without them.

Because Raynor had agreed to meet up with him and the rest of the Protoss once Kerrigan had fully recovered and had begun to make up for all that she did during her time as the Queen of Blades, it would seem illogical he would suddenly arrive on Aiur completely unannounced. Therefore, Artanis had to conclude that the terrans currently on Aiur belonged to a different faction, and therefore might not be Protoss friendly. The nearby Tal'darim base that has been mobilizing their forces to confront them might be an indication of that, but thus far no encounter with any Tal'darim survivors on Aiur has been met with a non-hostile reaction.

He pressed a button on his communicator console. "Executor Selendis, there has been a sighting of a functional terran base on Aiur. Our Observer only had a brief glimpse at it and therefore was unable to record any data about their intentions."

Selendis picked up on his message immediately. "Do you believe they are a threat?"

"Impossible to say right now. We need more information about them. Divert some of your Carriers away from our mighty fleet to investigate. I do not believe the terrans belong to Jim Raynor, as they would have made contact to us by now. This could only mean they do not want us or the Zerg to know of their presence here."

"Ever since the end of the Brood War, there has been virtually no terran presence on Aiur at all," Selendis said, looking over the recordings transmitted to her Carrier. "The terran base here appears to be too small to carry out any offensive operations. That would explain its secrecy."

"Its secrecy could mean it came to our world to steal from the Protoss," Mohandar replied. "I could see no reason behind it though. Most of our technology is far too advanced and beyond terran comprehension, while much of the relics that belong to the Xel'Naga that have remained on Aiur are still beyond our full understanding."

"Do not be quick to underestimate the terrans, Prelate Mohandar," Artanis warned. "They may know more about such technology than we dare to believe. Selendis, I am sending you the coordinates of the terran base."

"I will take some of my Carriers there immediately," Selendis said. "If these terrans prove hostile as speculated, they shall be purified the same way that is happening to the Zerg right now."

* * *

**Redstone III**

General Madison watched as the last of the Zerg in the attack wave retreated away from their base, regrouping with other Zerg further away for another attack. However, this last victory still had its cost to his boys. Although casualties had been much lighter now that the usage of the rich minerals had been authorized, the continued Zerg attacks were wearing the soldiers down. By now, most marines were utterly exhausted and were only able to keep going due to sheer adrenaline. The Zerg, however, remained relatively fresh due to the new ranks that filled in the ones that had been killed.

Even worse, by now the ammunition supply levels were nearing critical. Although the Wraiths have done an excellent job in escorting the ammunition carrier dropships down to the planet's surface, the fact remains that ammunition was being expended faster than the facilities on the BattleCruisers could replenish them. Attacks by the Wraiths against the Zerg hive cluster near their base was suicide, as there were just too many anti-air defenses positioned there. The Yamato Cannon orbital attacks from the BattleCruisers had destroyed some of the Zerg hatcheries, but enough remained to continue to offer heavy resistance.

Madison tapped his comm-link to speak to one of his mining SCV personnel. "What is the status of the mining so far?"

"Not good, sir. These Zerg attacks are making it far too dangerous to go down to the low ground and mine the rich mineral crystals. Ever since you authorized their usage, we have used up more than 20,000 of such just to hold off the Zerg."

"That's almost a third of what we've already mined!"

"The low grounds still have quite a bit of rich minerals in this area, but just how much are we needing here?"

"My orders are to acquire at least 500,000 here so we can extract as much jorium as we can out of these crystals."

"General, that's madness! The orbital scans had clearly indicated there was less than half that number in the area we landed! You're proposing we have to go elsewhere on Redstone III to mine more?"

"If that's what it comes down to, then yes. I don't know what Emperor Mengsk has planned for all this, but it's probably not for us to know anyway."

Madison then switched his channel to speak to his intelligence officer. "Colonel, what do you think of our status?"

"The recent Zerg attacks have slackened somewhat, so maybe we're winning in terms of resources. We brought resources of our own before landing on Redstone III, after all. Since all the minerals here are on the low ground, it's a simple matter of who's existing cache runs out first. If that's the case, I'd expect the Zerg to become more and more desperate, and start launching winner-take-all kinds of attacks on us."

At this point, the general alarm sounded again. "General, we've got another Zerg attack wave incoming!" A marine shouted. "This time they're bringing in Ultralisks with them!"

Madison scowled in anger. "Order the few ghosts we've brought with us into position immediately! Hit the monsters with all the irradiation rounds we've got!"

Minutes later, the sounds of battle could be heard as terran artillery shells rocked the lava grounds.

* * *

**Giant Khaydarin Crystal Chamber, Xel'Naga Caverns**

The Dark Templars stood in shock at the sight they were beholding, many of them still unable to believe what they were seeing. Just as they had detected the psionic emanations from living creatures, they had also detected a psionic signature almost similar to that of a heartbeat resonating throughout the caverns. As they had moved deeper in, the heartbeats became stronger. Now, at last, they had discovered the source of where it had been coming from.

"Mighty Zeratul, this is supposed purely legend!" A Dark Templar exclaimed. "During the time we had spent on Aiur before our exile, and even our times on Shakuras, there has never once been a Khaydarin Crystal of this scale!"

"This must be one of the very first Khaydarin Crystals ever forged on Aiur," Zeratul observed, looking up at the huge, floating monolith. Although a warrior himself, he was also an adventurer before the conflict with the Zerg. During his journeys back then, he had seen the Khaydarin Crystals seeded on other worlds, although Aiur still appeared to be the primary source, Shakuras being the only other planet that rivaled it in numbers.

The Khaydarin Crystal he saw on Ehlna when speaking to Zamara had been one of the largest he had ever seen, but the one in front of him made it look like a fragment in comparison. Now Zeratul understood why as he and his brethren had to continuously descend deeper underground even upon entering the caverns. At over 5000 feet tall, the giant floating Khaydarin Crystal had to be well hidden to prevent its enemies from exploiting its power.

Zeratul recalled what he and Zamara had spoken about when he was still at Ehlna. This was the same Khaydarin Crystal that Zamara had carved a fragment off of regarding her plan of the essence transfer. Because her essence had been slowly killing Jake Ramsey, she used this crystal shard in the hopes that once her spirit had been transferred to the crystal, Ramsey would be able to survive. This of course was upset by the continued interference from the Zerg, as well as the Dark Archon Ulrezaj, and later by the Terran Dominion. Fortunately, the majority of the Alysaar secrets were saved, as the terran Rosemary Dahl and the former Tal'darim warrior Vartanil helped the Alysaar Dark Templars transport most of the Khaydarin Memory Crystals into a Protoss ship, where they were then delivered to the safety of Shakuras.

The damage inflicted to the Alys'aril Nexus was painful for the Alysaar to see, but they conceded that as long as enough secrets were saved, it will be considered a success. To honor the agreement, the memory crystals were transported back after the nexus had been rebuilt a few months later.

Nevertheless, Zeratul knew the Protoss still had a long way to go before they fully understood the true nature and potential of these Khaydarin Crystals. According to the Shelak Protoss as they were the closest to the Xel'Naga, their creators had forged these psionic artifacts for the purpose of experimentation, although it was unclear what the experiments were really for. The artifacts were also used for information storage, a purpose only the Alysaar seemed to have been able to mimic.

In comparison, the Khalai Protoss have only been able to use the crystals as an energy source, powering the Pylons for Protoss buildings, enhancing their psionic energy, and using it as a power core for their spacecraft such as the Mothership. Khas was one of the few exceptions, using the artifacts to link the Protoss psionic energies to the Khala and uniting the people, but unfortunately his actions had also forged traditions to the Protoss people that very few seem to realize may no longer hold true. If the apocalyptic vision from the Overmind was accurate, then the window of opportunity for the Protoss to embrace change is rapidly closing.

To that end, Zeratul wondered if the giant Khaydarin Crystal before him and the other Dark Templars was part of the grand scheme of the greater picture, as well as what Zamara had asked him to seek out. He had seen a shard of the crystal already at Ehlna, shortly before Zamara had intended to begin the essence transfer into it. He did not remain to see the details, having left the moon to travel to the world of Pegasus due to the discovery of a Xel'Naga temple and witnessing the emergence of an energy being. Nevertheless, during the time he had seen the crystal, the energy signature he had experienced from it rendered it vastly more powerful in comparison to the Uraj and Khalis crystals he had retrieved a few years prior.

The twin crystals were clear proof that the Xel'Naga understood their power far better than the Protoss did. Both the Uraj and Khalis were carved from the Khaydarin Crystals themselves, and therefore this meant that they represented only a small fraction of the true power of the Khaydarin Crystals. The Khalis in particular was known to be a weapon even before it has been used on the Xel'Naga temple on Shakuras to clear the planet of Zerg infestation. When it was forged, it was entrusted to the Sargas Tribe of the Protoss on Aiur. But since most of the Sargas Protoss then had rejected the Khala, much of the energies that were infused into the Khalis belonged to the Void instead. After the exile of the Dark Templar from Aiur, the Khalis had been taken with them.

Upon discovering the Zerg on Char, the Nerazims had originally intended to use the power of the Khalis against the Zerg, as the power of the Khala had only minor effect on them in comparison to the Void. However due to the overwhelming Zerg presence, the crystal had been lost. It was only with Kerrigan's assistance in the Brood War that the Khalis had been retrieved, though by then most Protoss had trusted her reform.

The Uraj on the other hand had been an unfortunate victim of the Protoss space explorations and splinter fracture. Despite it was infused with Khala energies, it was not as stable as it was thought to be. When the Akilae Tribe entrusted with it took the crystal to Khyrador, it was meant to be used for meditation purposes. However, the Aeon of Strife had caused Protoss to hastily abandon the planet, while the Uraj was left behind, only retrieved during the Brood War.

Yet while it had been known that wielding significant amounts of the Khala and the Void simultaneously would result in almost certain death, it was also the combination of the powers that grant individual Protoss incredible power. It was via this concept that prompted Zeratul to teach Tassadar the powers of the Void, and the latter's usage of it that resulted in the death of the Zerg Overmind.

In the aftermath of the Brood War and the reality set in of Kerrigan's ascension to supreme ruler of the Zerg, it had become clear to many Protoss, Khalai and Nerazim alike, that when the swarm returned, it was probable that the powers of the Khala and the Void were needed simultaneously to ensure survival. Despite Protoss heroes such as Adun and Tassadar that wielded both powers, the energies they had channeled within themselves were still insignificant in comparison to the Uraj and Khalis. Indeed, many Protoss saw the purification of Shakuras as the peak of the combined powers of the Khala and the Void, as their powers when combined with the ancient Xel'Naga temple there prevented the Zerg from overrunning their world as they had on Aiur and fully cleansed their veil presence from the planet.

Zeratul had been informed that in the years following, while enormous efforts were made to rebuild the Protoss civilization, the Uraj and Khalis crystals and they powers they had displayed had not been forgotten. Instead, while not top priority in comparison to rebuilding the Great Fleets, efforts had been made in secret to harness their power and to determine what they were capable of on their own. After witnessing Raynor's victory on Char recorded by his Observer, Zeratul wondered if the experiments conducted on the Uraj and Khalis were meant to rival the effects done by the Xel'Naga artifact and the havoc it unleashed at the Zerg hive cluster there.

If the theories about the Uraj and the Khalis are correct, then the Khaydarin Crystals that they had been carved from would hold far greater power, and if the Protoss had learned how to harness it, they might have been able to purify the Zerg presence on Shakuras without the need for the Xel'Naga temple at all.

Given such theories, the power of the Khaydarin Crystal he and his Dark Templar brethren were standing before could have powers beyond their imagination, and Zeratul had no doubt that the relic would have a role to play in the events ahead.

His thoughts were quickly cast aside, however, as the sounds of footsteps were heard. As all of the Dark Templar were still gazing at the sight of the Khaydarin Crystal, it meant there were not alone in this chamber.

"Greetings, Prelate Zeratul," a deep voice spoke. "I knew you would discover this place eventually."

"Show yourself immediately!" Zeratul demanded.

A lone Khalai Protoss Templar stumbled into sight. It was immediately clear to Zeratul and the others that he was badly wounded, yet still had the strength to carry on.

"I am Felanis, the rightful leader of the Tal'darim."


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's Note: Since everyone had to wait so long for the last chapter, I thought I'd make a faster update this time. Got lucky with summer school and was able to pull out the time to make it happen, I thought why not.**

**I hope you guys enjoy this latest chapter of mine. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.**

* * *

Chapter 21

**Giant Khaydarin Crystal Chamber, Xel'Naga Caverns**

Despite seeing another Protoss survivor, Zeratul did not welcome the Templar. Although there was evidence to prove that not all of the Tal'darim had permanently succumbed to insanity due to Sundrop, the ones that regained their original selves nevertheless proved far too few in number. Zamara had told him of the Protoss survivors she had encountered on Aiur, and how the Tal'darim even attacked such Protoss.

He had seen it himself when he returned to Aiur some time ago with Artanis and Selendis. The Tal'darim was not the only surviving Protoss tribe still on Aiur. There was another one known as Shel'na Kryhas. Now he greatly regretted not making a greater effort to rescue the tribe as he had told Zamara that all Protoss were his brothers, even the Tal'darim. The destruction of the Warp Gate that lead to Shakuras should not have made him change his mind.

Zamara had told him that the Shel'na Kryhas continued to collect other Protoss survivors on Aiur, but were continuously opposed by the Tal'darim. Although the Shel'na Kryhas has befriended Zamara when she arrived at the Aiur Caverns, the Tal'darim had refused to listen to a preserver and fought against her. After the intervention of the Zerg to capture Zamara and the Terran Dominion's added interference, the Shel'na Kryhas had sacrificed themselves to ensure the terran Rosemary Dahl, along with Jake Ramsey and Zamara, to use the restored Warp Gate to escape to Shakuras.

Zamara told Zeratul the leader of the Shel'an Kryhas was a fierce warrior known as Ladranix, and he had willingly gave his life for her to prevent capture by the Zerg, as well as by Ulrezaj. Although this was done with the combined might of th Shel'nas Kryhas and some of the reformed Tal'darim, Zamara also told the Nerazim that the Tal'darim had split into two different factions on Aiur, where among the ones who died in that battle had opposed Ulrezaj, while the other remained loyal to the Dark Archon.

According to the female preserver, Felanis was the leader of the Tal'darim that had remained loyal to Ulrezaj, and Zeratul was unsure if that loyalty remained. His reaction would have been very different had the Protoss encountered been Alzadar, the leader of the Tal'darim that opposed Ulrezaj. Zamara told him that Alzadar was once a friend of Felanis, but that splintered as the Tal'darim had split in two. The Templar Alzadar had also been affected by the Sundrop drug, but Ladranix and the Shel'na Kryhas severed that addiction and restored Alzadar's connection to the Khala. Once he had learned the truth about Ulrezaj, he turned the tribe of Tal'darim under his command against him. Although Alzadar had survived the battle with the Dark Archon, he had been killed by the Zerg when he refused to show them how to use the Warp Gate to pursue Zamara to Shakuras.

For that reason, Zeratul was unsure how to react to Felanis. Zamara had informed him that Alzadar tried to convince the other Tal'darim to turn against him, but there was no evidence to show what happened in that aspect. He had to admit it was too much to hope to turn the Tal'darim _completely_ back to the side of the Khala, but it would still have been a starting step. While there was proof that Alzadar and the other Tal'darim were capable of being reformed in this manner, this did not mean that it would apply to every Protoss of the Tal'darim. The hostility to the Daelaam Protoss shown so far by all the Tal'darim survivors on Aiur proves they are either beyond influence, or there is still a long way to go before reformation.

In the case with Felanis, although it has more than likely been a year since he has encountered Protoss of any tribe, there was no assurance that he was different from the way he was when Zamara had encountered him. He was the founder of the Tal'darim in the first place, and therefore it would be very likely to remain hostile to those around him. Alzadar remained with the Tal'darim forces that had been converted in the caverns, and although he had emerged from the caverns alive with such Tal'darim followers, nothing was said about what had happened to Felanis.

Now, it was clear Felanis had indeed survived the confrontation in the caverns, although not unscathed. The injuries he had sustained is clear proof that he is no longer the capable warrior he once was, but that may change should he fully recover.

"Your silence intrigues me, dark one," Felanis said, snapping Zeratul out of his thoughts. "That you do not appear relieved to see another Protoss survivor on Aiur shows me you already know of my reputation."

"Few Tal'darim Protoss have ever been returned to their former selves after the corruption," the Dark Templar said in a warning tone, his Warp Blade still ignited. "All the ones we have encountered on Aiur have so far been hostile to us, despite the fact we should be working together to scour the planet of the Zerg infestation."

The Templar laughed bitterly. "And how to you intend to accomplish that? You seem to forget that there are still countless Zerg on this world, and if attacked could call in reinforcements to overrun you all."

"Has your time in isolation made you a coward, Templar?"

"Were it not for my wounds you would see it differently, Zeratul. I am still a capable warrior, and many have fallen for their arrogant thinking in they can best me."

"The Zerg leadership has been crippled as of recently. The Swarm is now leaderless and divided now that the Queen of Blades has been defeated. This has presented us with the perfect chance to take back our homeworld. As I speak Protoss brethren are battling it all over the planet against the Zerg, and much of Aiur is already back in our hands."

"The Zerg are but a part of something more at hand. I seriously doubt it is something you are able to comprehend and learn. This chamber is the heart of the caverns, but it houses more than just the Khaydarin Crystal you see before you. As the Xava'kai group of the Tal'darim, we had been forbidden to enter this chamber on the pain of death by our Xava'tor."

"You had worshipped a false leader, Felanis. All of you had only heard his voice, but had never once seen his face. He offered to save you and your people, while none of you realized his true identity or his purposes."

"I am the exception," Felanis replied. "I know all about our Xava'tor is in reality the Dark Archon Ulrezaj. He never planned to save us at all, he merely wanted the Protoss preservers for his own usage. The Tal'darim was ordered to provide him with it, and that is why we had obeyed our master to bring Zamara in when she had come to Aiur a year ago."

"Yet you remained loyal to him. The Templar Alzadar spoke to the other Tal'darim Protoss about his identity and many of them had turned against him. If you had known about Ulrezaj all along, why did you not turn against him like the others?"

"You have no comprehension of the method he had used to corrupt us. Your Dark Templar brethren embrace the power of the Void, not the Khala. What do you know of being cut off from the psionic link that you had been associated with for so long?"

"Perhaps, but the Sundrop effect is not a permanent one. It can be broken, just as Ulrezaj severed your Khala link."

"I need no help from you in such a restoration, Zeratul. This chamber has already done the task for me."

* * *

**Dominion Base, Aiur**

The ground shook with the sounds of battle as the marines repeatedly fired into their attackers. General Ridgeway fought beside them on the frontlines, deeply frustrated. When he had been ordered by Mengsk to come to Aiur, he had initially protested, as there would be far too much Zerg still inhabiting the planet for the Dominion to handle with such a small attack force. The Dominion emperor assured him that the Zerg will have their hands full fighting others to focus their attention on them.

So far, Mengsk had been right, but what Ridgeway hadn't expected was hostility from the Protoss. Contrary to what the media had said, the reality was the Zerg was the real enemy. The Protoss on the other hand, while not on friendly terms with the Dominion, were technically not at war with them. He had hoped that if worse came to worse and they came in contact with the Protoss, he could talk them out of it and say that they would only be here momentarily and be gone very quickly.

Nevertheless, Ridgeway also knew that this was an acquisition mission, and to the Protoss, this would be seen as an act of theft. While not a religious man himself, the general had known all about the acts of desecration of holy sites. While desecration may mean differently from the Protoss perspective, the fact remained that no matter how little damage they did, the Protoss would guard their relics with tenacity. If stolen, there's little doubt that they would hunt down thieves to get it back. Considering by now entire Protoss legions would have to be on Aiur trying to get their homeworld back, the last thing Ridgeway wanted was to stir up trouble with them.

Looking around at the battlefield, he could see the while the defenses were still holding, the battle was nevertheless taking its toll on his soldiers. Mengsk had forbidden him from using the gestalts on the frontlines, and it was after much persuasion that the emperor finally relented. However the general was given the order to protect the gestalts at all costs, as they are needed for Mengsk's grand plan.

This did not sit well with his men, and despite the fact the gestalts have greatly helped in holding the defensive line, most of the marines were displeased that they were expendable assets, to be sacrificed for the greater picture.

"General, we've got more Stalkers incoming!" A marine shouted.

"Siege tanks, destroy them all!" Ridgeway ordered.

The siege tanks situated on the high ground opened up with their 120mm shock cannons, but while some of the Stalkers were blown apart, others blinked away to avoid the explosions. The gestalts on the frontlines opened up with their Gatling guns grafted to their arms, as the Stalkers returned fire with their particle disruptors. One by one the gestalts were hit, but the strength they had inherited spliced Protoss characteristics allowed them to keep fighting. As the marines provided fire support, some of the gestalts used their psionic speed capabilities to run up quickly to the Stalkers. Without the ability to engage in hand to hand combat, they were sliced apart by the gestalts' psionic blades.

More continued to blink about the battlefield to avoid the siege tanks, as Zealots and Immortals joined in with them. The siege tanks did what they could against them, but the Immortals' hardened shields activated, preventing the heavy damage that would have been inflicted upon them. The gestalts had their hands full firing at the Zealots, who also used their psionic speed to close the distance to the trenches, allow them to use their psionic blades to effect.

This left the marauders to deal with the Immortals, but their punisher grenades were weak compared to the phase disruptors. A single accurate shot from an Immortal struck home, as several marauders were sent hurling backwards from the force of the blast. Ridgeway and a squad of reapers filled their place, firing everything they had at the cybernetic walkers. Being non-heavy attacks, the general knew this would prevent their shields from activating. As he had predicted, the Immortals immediately began to take heavy damage, as Zealots charged in against them.

"Detonate the charges immediately!" An officer shouted.

The reapers complied, and within moments, all Zealots unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast radius were blown apart by the sheer explosive power. However as the smoke cleared, Ridgeway's face fell. Protoss Warp Prisms were approaching the frontlines, escorted by Scouts, Phoenixes, and Void Rays. Because they were yet within an adequate range, none of the Warp Prisms have entered phase mode yet, but the general knew all too well that they would enter it out of range of the missile turrets.

The turrets themselves were taking a pounding as well. Despite continuously firing their longbolt missiles at the Protoss air units, they were outnumbered by the Void Rays. As their prismatic beams increased in intensity, many of the turrets succumbed to it. This allowed the Warp Prisms to fly in closer than they should have been able to, as Zealot after Zealot warped onto the battlefield and charged at the frontlines.

Firebats were deployed to engage the Protoss warriors, as it was known the Zealots were very vulnerable to flame attacks. However this was stopped quickly as firebats did not have any defense against aerial opponents, and the Scouts flew it and unleashed their photon blasters upon them. There was little need to fire continuously, as the Protoss had learned of the vulnerable gasoline tank on the firebats' backs. A single shot is enough to penetrate it and within moments, many of the firebats exploded, killing marines and reapers nearby.

"Goliaths, destroy those Void Rays!" Ridgeway shouted. "We have to reach the Warp Prisms!"

The mechanical combat walkers moved in on the Protoss positions, their autocannons blazing at the Zealots. However only a few were able to fire their hellfire missiles at the Void Rays, as the Phoenix fighters used their graviton beams to suspend the goliaths in mid-air, where they were easy prey for their ion cannon blasters.

As Ridgeway and the other marines were slowly pushed back, orders were issued for the remaining marines in the bunkers to evacuate the defense line. But by then it was too late, as the Zealots overwhelmed the firing ports and closed in. The sounds of screaming marines told the general that there was no hope of rescue if they retook the positions back right away.

"Where is the air support?" He demanded. "The Protoss are hammering us out here! We need those Vikings and Banshees now!"

"The ships are on their way, general," the reply came. "ETA 10 minutes."

"We're not going to last that long!" Ridgeway shouted, as the Zealots and Stalkers closed in on his position. The gestalts were firing every round they have at the attackers, but the Protoss numbers were overwhelming. With the Scouts also adding their fire to assist them, the gestalts were also being slowly pushed back.

"We ran into heavy Protoss air resistance along the way, sir. You're going to make it, but you have to hold out a bit longer."

Ridgeway pounded his fist on the trench walls in frustration, as marines, firebats, reapers, and marauders were being overrun and slaughtered by Protoss ships. Without the ability to fire on air units, the siege tanks will no longer be able to provide the artillery support. He did have a few Thors on hand, but they didn't have strong anti-air capabilities and there were too many Protoss ships for them to handle by themselves anyway.

He nodded to a nearby Dominion officer, as the rest of the infantry and gestalts continued to fire on the Protoss ground units. "Get everyone to fall back to the second defensive line. Deploy all the remaining marines and goliaths there to support the Thors. Have the marines concentrate on the Void Rays and the goliaths on the Scouts. The Thors can then deal with the Phoenixes themselves."

* * *

**Agria**

"Well Jim, this is the last of my people," Dr. Hanson announced, as the Agria colonists descended from the colony ships. "With Agria cleared of the Zerg, there's going to be long haul for rebuilding."

"I'm sure they'll be just fine, Doc," Jim replied. Nearby, Dominion soldiers were boarding the dropships to return to the BattleCruisers. Only he, Sarah and Nova are left with Ariel, with the last dropship standing by for them. "I just hope they aren't going to call for your expertise at a moment's notice. I need you for far bigger goals."

"I've already taught the doctors here in how to synthesize a cure for the virus should it come up again," Ariel explained.

"Let's hope it works. The virus I've encountered this time is much more advanced than when I fought the Zerg 4 years before, and it's clear the virus is constantly evolving."

"You shouldn't be surprised if you find other worlds with the same infestation," Sarah pointed out. "The invasion I had launched also had its purposes to assimilate people into the Zerg to serve the swarm."

"Sarah, I'm going to have to agree with Jim on this one," Ariel stated. "You have to stop seeing yourself as the Queen of Blades. I know you still have the memories of everything that monster did, but you and her are not the same person. Everything that has happened in the invasion was her doing, not yours."

Kerrigan looked down, still suffering from the guilt. "Even if that's true, the fact remains I wasn't strong enough to stop her."

"Sarah," Nova said softly. "Every bit counts for something. Most of the infested terrans turned into total monsters. You were still able to retain your free will and parts of your humanity during all those years. That alone is plenty right there."

"The Protoss will never accept that as an excuse. You'll see what I mean when we reach Aiur."

"That's actually another reason to bust open New Folsom," Jim said. "We need the manpower. Something tells me by the time we reach Aiur there's still going to be fighting going on over the planet, and I'm in no mood for you to go down there to be attacked by the Zerg again, Sarah. Your accelerated healing rate will help, but that can only protect you so far."

"I may not even end up fighting the Zerg, Jim. You honestly think the Protoss will really allow me to get close to the Zerg again? You said it yourself they aren't yet convinced I'm no longer infested anymore."

"They won't have a choice in the matter. Even if all the Zerg on Aiur are dead by the time we arrive, we still have to go to the corpse of the Overmind. It has more clues about what we're going up against in this prophecy, and I'm pretty sure you'd want to know why it did what it did to you all those years ago."

Just then, Jim's comm-link went off. "Raynor, have all the colonists departed yet?"

"They have, general," Jim answered, before turning back to Sarah and Nova. "We're done here on Agria. Let's saddle up, it's time to head to New Folsom. Mengsk locked far too many people up because they either posed a threat to him or was just a weapon to him that had served its purpose. Time we go there and open their cages."


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note: All right people, the next chapter is here! This chapter is a little bit different from the other chapters because none of the main characters are in it, but it will foreshadow future chapters to come, although some will be _way_ into the future and all that. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 22

**Xel'Naga Caverns Entrance, Aiur**

Zekrath unleashed the power of the graviton beams from his Phoenix to suspend a Zerg Infestor into the air, where the other Phoenixes made short work of it. On the ground, Vartanil and the other Zealots continued to hold against the oncoming Zerglings and Roaches, while the Hydralisks moved in to attack the Phoenixes as their graviton beams have a limited amount of energy and therefore could only be used so many times before the need to recharge.

"These Purifiers, Soul Hunters, and Vindicators are indeed formidable, Templar," the former Tal'darim warrior observed, as the new Protoss warriors wrecked havoc on the Zerg minions. "Perhaps I was wrong about the terrans and their combat characteristics."

"This is their first time in proving their power in the midst of combat," the Shelak Tribe leader replied. "Despite the training they had received in the past, the silence from the Zerg denied them their chance. Now they have been provided with the best opportunity: showing off their potential in the retaking of our homeworld."

"I still find it somewhat dishonorable that we have chosen to learn from the terrans," Urun stated, as the ion cannons from his Phoenix ripped apart a Mutalisk. "Their technology is nothing compared to our own, as it was our powers that defeated the Overmind in the first place, not theirs."

"There is still much to be learned from them, Urun," Ataldis replied, his Star Relic adding fire to the battle against the Zerg Corruptors. "Power and technology alone are not enough to determine the course of the battle. There are the terrans who understand that, and all of the Protoss should learn that as well."

Zekrath watched proudly as attack after attack was broken apart by his Shelak Guardians, assisted by his new warriors. Indeed, it had been his attention to appeal to the Hierarchy to train them on a mass scale should they prove their worth on Aiur. Artanis had initially hesitated on using them here due to their lack of combat experience, but Zekrath had eventually persuaded him in that the Zerg can never be underestimated. The Hierarch had said it himself that Jim Raynor's victory on Char was not a fatal blow to the Zerg, and therefore they would recover if given enough time. Thus it was probable that once the attack to scour the Zerg from Aiur began, there was no turning back. If the Protoss failed to take back the homeworld here, then they would not be given another chance because the Zerg would have recovered by the time their warriors replenished their numbers.

Artanis may be young, but he was no fool. He had known all along that eventually the Protoss would return to Aiur for reclamation. Like many other Protoss brethren, he too understood that in such an endeavor, it was worth the breaking of the traditions. Although Zerg resistance has remained fierce all over Aiur, there was no denying that they were being exterminated all across the planet. From the Observer reports that had been endlessly flowing in, very soon there will be nothing left except for the concentrations nestled at Antioch and the Overmind's resting site.

Despite being exiled from Aiur for many years, the Nerazim Protoss still shared their love of Aiur like their Khalai counterparts. Both sects knew if it meant seeing the sun rise over a free and liberated Aiur, they were willing to put aside their differences. Although many of them had their prided wounded that their capital city of Antioch was still in Zerg hands, Artanis had promised them that once the rest of the Zerg have been cleared, they will focus all their energies on the city.

Zekrath knew that victory at any cost here against the Zerg would weaken the swarm even more, although that was not on the minds of most Protoss warriors. Every one of them was willing to give their lives for all who had died against the swarm, just as Tassadar had done. However, their forfeiture would mean nothing if they did not prevail, and it was this that convinced Artanis to allow the Vindicators, Soul Hunters, and Purifiers to be brought along.

They had originally been meant to take part in attacking the Zerg in the event the Protoss numbers were insufficient, not defending certain positions against the savage Zerg offensives. Nevertheless, the Shelak leader was firmly convinced that whatever Zeratul discovered in the ancient Xel'Naga city could end up decided far more than the fate of Aiur, it could also determine the fate of the entire universe. Therefore, it was vital that no Zerg be allowed to set foot in the sacred underground site.

By now, most of the other Protoss had grown to respect these new additions to combating the Zerg. They had been somewhat based on the terran ground warriors known as marines. Though the blasters they wield contain far less power in comparison to the Soul Hunters, Vindicators, and Purifiers, Zekrath had seen the potential in ranged combat, rather than the melee combat done by the Zealots, still claimed as glorious by the Protoss.

The Soul Hunter design had been based on the intent to combine the blasters from the marines with the psionic blades of the Zealots. Because the latter had not yet reached the upper levels of the Khala, they did not yet have the discipline necessary to control psionic storms like the High Templar could. However as the Zerg had been incorporating more and more creatures into the swarm that utilize ranged attacks, it meant that Zealots would be greatly weakened before they could get within psionic blade range. The Soul Hunter therefore had their power suits modified and the psionic blades were taken out, replaced instead by disruption energy cannons, similar to the disruption beam wielded by the Sentry. Similar to the marine design, these cannons were capable of attacking ground and air units from a distance, and a number of Soul Hunters using their disruption energy lasers in unison would be considered extremely deadly even to Zerg Ultralisks given their slow speed compared to other Zerg units.

The Purifiers on the other hand were much more closely based on the terran marine design, as their power suits also had their psionic blades removed, but were not replaced with any weapon grafted onto it. Instead, they were given a long energy lance, large enough that it had to be held with both hands. It had been quickly discovered by Zealots that the ability of the psionic storm casted could be controlled based on its size and magnitude. However to most Zealots, this made no sense to them as without the upper levels of the Khala, the size of the storm that they were able to control was too weak to kill, even individual Zerglings were able to survive such storms.

However, members of the Furinax Tribe thought differently. Throughout Protoss history, they had been known to be craftsmen, artisans, builders, and weaponsmiths. Even after the fall of Aiur, they had remained obsessed with understanding the power of the sacred Khaydarin Crystals with Protoss technology. Before becoming part of the Tal'darim, Vartanil was a member of the Furinax Tribe. He had known about the Furinax desire to make further advances in Protoss technology, particularly that of the psionic storm which had proven so deadly to their enemies. However despite their desire to combine the storm power with technology, this had been forbidden by the Judicator Caste, controlled by the Conclave. The Conclave had feared the uncontrollable psionic storms would prove to be far too great a threat to the Khalai Protoss, just as uncontrolled storms from the Dark Templar did.

Now that the Conclave no longer existed after the unification of the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss, these restrictions had been somewhat lifted. Artanis knew the Conclave had justification for their concern, and therefore allowed the Furinax tribe to proceed only on a limited scale on the Purifiers, and only in utter secrecy. Now, the fruits of the work of the Furinax Tribe could be brought to light. The energy lances forged by them and given to the Purifiers had harnessed the raw psionic power of the storms, although to be discharged in a more focused way. Zekrath had seen with his own eyes the power of the lightning arcs of these weapons, as they used the psionic storm of a High Templar and focused it into a thinner more concentrated line of energy, instantly tearing apart Zerglings, Roaches, Hydralisks, and Infestors alike. Similar to the psionic storms, these lightning arcs were also capable reaching up to Zerg air units, though the Furinax were unable to remove the energy cost in using the lightning ability. As such, in Sentries' disruption beam ability had also been built into the energy lances. While much less powerful as the concentrated psionic lightning, it nevertheless provided the Purifiers with offensive and defensive capabilities should their energy run low in the midst of battle.

The Vindicator was the most difficult of the new warriors to forge. While the Soul Hunter and Purifier were given the longer range attacks, it had sacrificed the usage of the standard psionic blades. Although confidence had run high in that they would be protected by Zealots, there was no guarantee this would work in practice. As such, the Soul Hunters and Purifiers would be left defenseless from swarms of Zergling attacks, as eventually enough would get through to kill them with their claws. For that reason, it was decided that the Vindicator will only sacrifice the psionic blade on the left arm, but will retain it on the right arm. Unlike the Zealot, Soul Hunter, and Purifier, however, the Vindicator had something unique that the others did not: flight.

The Furinax Tribe had also forged a hovering platform for the Vindicators to stand upon. While the platform's speed is only slightly faster than that of Zealot when not using the psionic charge ability, the platform was able to fly up into the air for short periods of time. This because especially vital against the Brood Lords. Although not as easy to breed in comparison to the Mutalisks, the Brood Lords had the advantage of conducting their broodling strikes from a much further distance. Despite the continued efforts from all the Phoenixes, and Urun and Zekrath in particular, enough were still able to get through to launch their deadly cargo at the Protoss ground warriors. This had forced them to focus on the broodlings, while the Brood Lords themselves were able to remain in relative safety.

The Vindicator provided the means to counter this. As the Brood Lords had no defense against aerial opponents, the Vindicators have been able to simply move in under them, then use the hover platform to boost themselves up and use their psionic blades to slice and the creatures' underbellies. Because getting in such a range also put the Vindicator within Mutalisk attacks, an energy lance type cannon was grafted onto the Vindicator's left arm, similar to that of the energy lance of the Purifier. However, because the cannon was smaller in scale in comparison, it also meant that the lightning arcs it discharged were much weaker than that of the Purifier, and this made it ineffective in combat.

To find a way around this, the Furinax Tribe had turned to Dark Templar technology to be incorporated into the Vindicator. Of particular interest to them was the Void Ray, which had been built two years prior to the Zerg invasion. Although the Soul Hunters and Purifiers both had the disruption energy attacks, it required groups of them to handle the large Zerg creatures, especially in the case of assaulting Zerg hive clusters, where Observers have frequently reported clashes with Ultralisks backed up by Queens. As the Void Rays' prismatic energy beam becomes more powerful over time, the Furinax sought to incorporate this ability into individual Protoss power suits. Ultralisks seldom run from their enemies if they could fight back, and it was hoped that by adding the prismatic beam capability into the Vindicator, the large Zerg breeds will become easier to deal with and avoid the loss of Protoss life.

Although the prismatic beam incorporation ultimately proved unsuccessful, it nevertheless had an unexpected benefit to the Vindicators. As the Void Rays were of Nerazim design, it meant they channeled the energies of the Void. Because the energy lance cannon on the Vindicator was of Khalai design, it channeled the energies of the Khala. Both sects had known the dangers of wielding enormous amounts of both powers simultaneously, but due to the failure of assimilating the prismatic beam, most were assured that no harm would come to the Vindicators. However, traces of Void energy had remained behind after the attempt, and its combination with the Khala had greatly improved the lightning ability of the energy lance cannon. Although still slightly weaker in comparison to that of the Purifier, the Vindicator's lightning arc was able to split into three, allowing multiple target attacks and bringing it somewhat closer to resemblance of the psionic storm the High Templars are able to cast. Combined with the hovering platform that had the ability to boost them into the air to attack Zerg flyers, it has made the Vindicator a formidable opponent in the midst of combat.

It was from these three types of new Protoss warriors that Zekrath had hoped would turn the tide once battle was joined. However their relatively small numbers mean they are unable to be used to their full potential. Even now, thousands of Protoss brethren are being warped to Aiur via the Mass Recall ability of the Motherships because the Warp Gate on Aiur had been too badly damaged. Of course a straight warp to Aiur would have been suicide anyways, but many Protoss brethren had grown overconfident that with the Zerg leaderless, they wouldn't be able to attack the Warp Gate effectively.

Regardless, despite the tens of millions of Protoss warriors that have been joining the Daelaam Protoss for the reclamation of Aiur, only a few thousand of them had been comprised of Soul Hunters, Purifiers, and Vindicators. Even they are not able to fight effectively when pitted up against millions of Zerg, and despite the fact the massive numbers of Zerg casualties, the orbital scans clearly show other than the two massive Zerg strongholds, there are still well over 100 million Zerg scattered over Aiur.

"The latest Zerg wave has been repelled," Vartanil announced, watching the retreating minions. "Your new warriors have performed superbly, Zekrath."

"As long as a single one of us still breathes, no Zerg will never enter the Xel'Naga sanctuary," a Purifier declared, holding his energy lance into the air.

"Zekrath, is it your intention to train more of such warriors in the future?" Urun asked.

The Shelak Tribe leader nodded. "The Zealots were far from the only type of Protoss warrior during our early histories. There had been others, but the Zealot had proven to be the most effective of them. The Observers here have recorded every detail of the battle. It is my intention that if the Vindicators, Soul Hunters, and Purifiers prove their worth here, I will give my recommendations to Hierarch Artanis. With his approval, once our culture begins to reform on Aiur, a new generation of Protoss warriors will emerge. With them, we will cleanse every world of the Zerg, so that they will never be able to threaten life again."

* * *

**Redstone III**

"That was the last of the Ultralisks, general," A marine reported, as the firing died down.

General Madison sighed in relief from inside the Command Center. That last Zerg attack had taken a heavy toll on their ammunition reserves. By now, most of the siege tanks were no longer able to provide artillery support as they have run out of shells. Vikings had been sent down to provide fire support via their Gatling cannons, but their continuous usage had rendered too many of them to overheat. If another Zerg attack wave came in a few minutes, they won't be in a position to support them.

On the lava high grounds, the terrain was covered with the corpses of Zerglings, Roaches, Infestors, Hydralisks, Ultralisks, and downed Mutalisks and Overlords. Scans from the BattleCruisers orbiting Redstone III have indicated that the Zerg ranks in their hive cluster base have essentially been depleted. As such, the scans had also shown that the Zerg Queen activities had increased dramatically at their hatcheries, rapidly increasing the production building's time to spawn larvae. Even as the marines were catching their breaths and collapsing on the ground from the sheer exhaustion from battle, reports were coming in that eggs were being formed and hatching at a steady rate.

To Madison, this was dire news indeed. The moment the firing died down, he had ordered every single SCV and transport truck that could be spared down to the low grounds to mine, and carry back all the rich mineral crystals they could carry. The few Vikings that were fortunate enough not to become overheating victims provided the escort, along with many of the goliaths that still had adequate ammo for their autocannons and hellfire missiles. He would have used the Thors as well, but they couldn't move as fast. With the lava flooding the low grounds every few minutes, having them venture down there was an automatic death sentence. The irradiation rounds fired from the ghosts may have down their job in stopping the Zerg attacks, but it also left a high radiation concentration on the low grounds. This meant no infantry could venture down there, as they would succumb too easily to radiation poisoning, while the SCVs had much better shielding and therefore could withstand the radiation.

Despite the rapid healing rate the Zerg possess, the radiation levels were too high even for their ground units. Only the Ultralisks were strong enough to withstand the poisoning and still keep fighting, but their slower speed made them vulnerable to flanking attacks. Nevertheless, this did not apply to Zerg flyers, as the radiation levels were no longer as harmful at 175 feet and above, and as such Mutalisks and Brood Lords could easily fly over the contaminated area and head for their base. By now, the Wraith fighters providing the air cover were also running low on ammunition, having had frequent clashes with Mutalisks. This had forced the ammunition facilities on the BattleCruisers to shift their priority to manufacturing ammo for the Wraiths so that they could better escort the supply ships sent down to the base. As such, it meant that Madison and his soldiers on the ground were now receiving less and less ammo with every supply ship that came down. If the Zerg air attacks continue like this, pretty soon they wouldn't be receiving ammo at all.

The general opened open the communications channel with the lead SCV. "What is the status of our mining so far?"

"We've collected more than 5,000 mineral crystals already, sir. This whole low ground area has barely 150,000 of them left, way below what you require."

"Any more in the immediate area?"

"Only on the other side of the canyon. It has just enough for what we need. There's no Zerg in the area, so as long as they don't follow us there, we should be fine."

"How fast you think you can harvest the minerals here?"

"Give it a couple of hours, why?"

"We're in a race against the clock right now. The Zerg are replenishing their numbers as we speak, and we barely have the numbers to keep fighting them like this. It's all going to have to boil down to can you mine faster than they can breed or not."

"We're going as fast as we can, sir. The radiation levels should prevent the Zerg from attacking us down here. As long as you can keep the skies above our heads clear, we should be able to handle it."

* * *

**Dominion Prison HQ, New Folsom**

Colonel Winters was on the communications channel with Mengsk. "Emperor, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"

"I thought I might take an interest on how the neosteel production is coming along at New Folsom," the Dominion emperor replied.

"You don't have to worry about a thing. The increase in forced laborers is getting done nicely."

"Have they given you any problems?"

Winters laughed. "My boys will put a bullet in their heads if they do, sir. Besides, most of them have been too badly weakened by starvation to fight effectively. Those that are strong enough to keep going are simply worked to their deaths in the neosteel production factories. Others are sent to the vehicle factories to be worked to death there, and more are send to the dockyards where they go through the same process."

"I can see I made the right choice in making you the security commander of the prison, colonel. I'm glad you're ruthless towards them, it helps keep them in line."

"You don't have to worry about me starving them deliberately, sir. I know you still want the industrial production to be at the maximum output, so I keep the prisoners just strong enough to work, nothing more."

"And the ammunition factories there?"

"It's the same procedure. They're expendable assets anyway, so the daily death rate of thousands mean nothing to me. Besides, there's plenty to fill in their spots."

"I'm glad you see it that way. The prison's security remains strong since there hasn't been any Zerg attacks on it, but just to add another layer, I'm sending you a package of special soldiers. Call it a matter of scaring the prisoners into line even more."

"Great, more toys for me to play with."

"These aren't for you to break and expect to get away with it, Colonel. These are special to me, not expendable cannon fodder like the security marines you've got. If you're going to use them, do it carefully. They'll be arriving within the hour."

"Don't worry, sir. I'll make sure these soldiers are treated well. If anyone is foolish enough to come to New Folsom, I'd be more than happy to tear them a new one with my security force."

* * *

**Author's Note: The Purifiers, Soul Hunters, and Vindicators I had taken off Starcraft Ghost Protoss units and tried incorporating them into the fic myself. When I looked over the proposals on them, it appeared for Starcraft Ghost, and Wings of Liberty, they only wanted _one_ new Protoss unit, but they had given it three different names, as well as three different designs for how they wanted this new unit.**

**So, I simply did it the easy way: just turn them into three different units, each with the design that Blizzard had proposed (but was later cancelled).**

**I tried to explain in this chapter how the Protoss Purifiers, Vindicators, and Soul Hunters came to be, because let's be honest: not _all_ Protoss are so arrogant as to think there's nothing they can possibly learn from terran technology.**

**So yeah, please read and review and tell me if you think my descriptions of how they originated worked out or not, k?**


	23. Chapter 23

**Author's Note: The next chapter is here everyone! This chapter will end on a note that a lot of people will probably say it's been a long time coming, and I was very happy to write the last part of the chapter myself.**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter 23

**Dominion Base, Aiur**

"General Ridgeway, the air-cav has arrived. Give us a target." A Viking pilot announced.

"Not one minute too soon," the general replied. "Get some fire on those Phoenixes and Scouts! They're hammering us down here!"

"Right away, sir." The squads of Vikings opened up with their lanzer torpedoes at the Protoss ships, and within minutes the sky was filled with the sounds of battle. With the Phoenixes occupied, the marines fought with renewed vigor against the Protoss ground warriors attacking their defense line.

"The siege tanks are in position, sir! Where do you want the strike?"

"Concentrate fire on the Zealots!" Ridgeway ordered. "Do not allow them to charge at the infantry!"

As the Zealots charged forward, the siege tanks opened up with their artillery cannons. The ground shook with the ferocity of battle, as Zealot after Zealot fell to the deadly artillery attacks. The ones lucky enough to survive did not do so unscathed, however, as they were quickly mowed down by the gestalts' miniguns.

The Immortals, however, proved to be a much bigger problem. Their hardened shields prevented the siege tanks from killing them quickly, and although reapers had concentrated their fire on them, their P-38 pistol range was shorter compared to the phase disruptors of the Immortal. As such, the Immortals were able to stay slightly back and pick off the reapers from afar.

"Get the Thors into position!" An officer commanded. "Blow the Immortals to hell!"

"Fear the thunder!" The Thor pilots shouted, as giant mechanical walkers opened up with the Thor's Hammer Cannons. Despite the strength of the hardened shield, even the Immortals could withstand little of such punishment, and within moments, most had been blown apart. The Stalkers rushed in to fill their positions, blinking about to prevent being struck in a similar way, but the Thors simply unleashed their artillery strikes via the shock cannons on their backs. With such a large strike radius, most Stalkers were unable to fully blink out of range and were destroyed in this aspect.

The marauders and firebats continued to do their work on the Zealots, still rushing towards the defensive lines, but the heavy fighting they had sustained prior to the air cavalry's arrival meant their firepower was now much weaker. The gestalts themselves were unable to help, having to concentrate their fire on the Sentries now being warped in via the Warp Prisms.

Vultures continued to lay spider mines on the field, but there were now fewer and fewer of them venturing out there. Not that they didn't have the mines to spare, but although the Phoenix fighters had their hands busy on the Vikings, the Scouts were able to move about with only minor harassment from the air. As such, too many Vultures were being picked off by their photon blasters, and few drivers wanted to continue to run such a gauntlet.

The goliath pilots opened up with their hellfire missiles on the Scouts, but too many of them had already been destroyed prior to the air reinforcements and therefore their numbers posed much less of a threat than what would have been.

Suddenly, a Thor walker nearby exploded in a giant fireball. Ridgeway's eyes widened as he saw what took out such a powerful war machine: Protoss Void Rays were also entered the battle. Although not too effective against thinner armored targets, their prismatic beams were perfect for dealing with the thickly armored vehicles and ships, and the Thors made an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that.

"If those Void Rays take out all our Thors, we're done for!" Ridgeway exclaimed. "We need immediate BattleCruiser assistance, now!"

"Sir, a yamato cannon attack would end up killing all of you too!"

"Use the plasma torpedo barrage then! It's not as powerful, but it gets the job done! Now use it before we're all dead!"

Although in Aiur's atmosphere to better avoid detection from the Protoss capital ships, the BattleCruisers nevertheless were flying high above the battlefield. In multiple flashes of orange lights, their deadly payload was released.

The effect was devastating. Phoenix fighters were immediately ripped apart by the torpedoes, as they had been too preoccupied in fighting the Vikings to notice until it was too late. The Scouts fared little better, as they too felt the blows. The ones that survived were easy prey for the Vikings, their shields completely drained of energy.

On the ground, the results were the same. Half the Zealots attacking the defense line were now charred corpses, and the mechanical parts of Sentries were strewn all across the battlefield. Most of the Stalkers were aflame and no longer able to fight effectively, while the surviving Immortals retreated away, knowing their phase disruptors did not have the range to deal with the terran ships attacking from afar.

"Send the Vikings out and hunt them down!" Ridgeway ordered. The Vikings complied, most of them transforming into their ground mode to unleash the power of their Gatling cannons. As this was not a heavy attack, the Immortals' hardened shields did not activate and therefore most fell prey to the Vikings this way. The Stalkers were more fortunate, as they retained their blinking ability and therefore were able to move away much faster than the Immortals did.

Suddenly, however, a long orange beam of energy fired, and a line of 6 Vikings were immediately blown apart.

"General, the Protoss Warp Prisms!" An officer announced from the Command Center. "They're bringing in the Colossi against us!"

Ridgeway scowled in irritation. This just keeps getting better and better. "Have we at least been able to locate what we've been sent here for?"

"We just have," came the reply. "Took us quite a few scanner sweeps, but I think we've found it. About 15 clicks north of here are some old Protoss temple ruins. I don't know what's so important there, but apparently there's an energy reading there that matches what the emperor wants us to find on Aiur."

"Are you absolutely sure?" Ridgeway demanded.

"The reading is very weak, so I'm not 100 percent sure. We have to go to the ruins to find out."

"What about the Zerg or other unfriendly Protoss? Any of them in the area?"

"No, sir. It's just a bunch of stone ruins, no enemy of any kind nearby. So unless the Protoss attacking us pursue us there, we shouldn't encounter anymore hostility."

"Good enough for me," Ridgeway replied, before sending an order to the BattleCruisers. "Send all the dropships down here right now. We're packing up the base and heading for the ruins."

* * *

**Xel'Naga Caverns, Aiur**

"What do you mean this chamber has dealt with the Sundrop substance already?" Zeratul demanded. "You have come in with no contact with other Protoss, and they were the ones who broken the addiction in the case with Alzadar! There is nothing here that could help you with that!"

"That is because we still have much to learn from our creators, the Xel'Naga," Felanis replied, gesturing to the giant Khaydarin Crystal. "Remember, we did not create the Khaydarin Crystals ourselves, the Xel'Naga did. They had left these artifacts on Aiur many years ago, and we had known of them long before your kind had been exiled from this world. Yet despite all these years we had known of their existence, our history had shown that we have only understood them as a source of energy. We had used them to power our crafts, our buildings, and our weapons, yet virtually none of us seem to understand how to use it in any other way."

Zeratul decided not to mention the usage of the Khaydarin Crystals by the Alysaar on Ehlna, where they had understood how to use the ancient relics as a means to store memory. Although individual Protoss had used the crystals to focus and calm their minds, this application was not of much use in times of war.

"The Xel'Naga, on the other hand, had been able to use these artifacts as a means to store information, although to this day almost no Protoss has ever succeeded in accessing what our fathers had stored in there. What is known is that they have certainly used the Khaydarin Crystals for other purposes, purposes that we do not yet understand."

"What does this have to do with you and your claim of restoration?" the Nerazim asked.

"Apparently different Khaydarin Crystals have different properties," the Tal'darim leader answered. "I had been badly wounded in battle when Alzadar turned my loyal Tal'darim against me. They had underestimated my strength, however, as they had left me for dead, not realizing I was still alive."

"They had their reason, Templar. Your Xava'kai people were nothing but pawns to Ulrezaj, yet you continued to follow him and attacking your fellow Tal'darim brothers simply for thinking otherwise!"

"Unlike the other Tal'darim, Ulrezaj had exposed me to far greater amount of Sundrop than the others. Sundrop is supposed to gradually sever the link to the Khala, but due to such an excess used on me, my link was severed almost instantly. Of course, this was not the only effect Sundrop had. Its second effect was to alter the way of thinking, and the more used, the greater the chances that it will contribute to total irrational thoughts and actions. That was why even after I had discovered the true identity of our Xava'tor, I had remained loyal to him. Fortunately, even he did not fully understand the power of the Khaydarin Crystal before us."

"Are you saying it restored you to your original self?" A Lenassa Dark Templar asked.

"You are correct, dark one." Felanis replied. "Though I still do not fully understand even to this day, the giant Khaydarin Crystal has some form of healing capabilities. When I had been badly wounded in battle in the caverns, after Alzadar and the other Tal'darim had departed, I had retreated down here, to the heart of the ancient Xel'Naga city, despite the fact that our Xava'tor had forbidden us to enter the crystal chamber under the pain of death."

He gazed at the enormous glowing artifact for a moment, before continuing, "Back then, I had no understanding of the relic's potential at all. What I did know however, was that it held power beyond the understanding of any Protoss, perhaps power that could be triggered without me even realizing it. I had hoped its energies would heal my wounds so I could leave the caverns and bring my Tal'darim brethren back. Unfortunately, the crystal healed my wounds only to the point where it was no longer fatal. I had remained weak, unable to fight. Thus I had remained in the chamber in the hopes its energies would fully heal me someday. None of my Tal'darim brothers believed the Protoss that had so cowardly retired to the Dark Templar homeworld would return, and therefore I believed I would get my chance to reacquaint with my clan. Yet during the extended period of time I had spent down here, I had felt the presence of the Sundrop slowly fade from my body, and the gradual feeling of the Khala once again. By now, most of the restoration has been completed, as I feel only minor influences from the Sundrop substance, and a far stronger connection to the Khala."

Zeratul eyed his fellow Dark Templar. None of them had deactivated their warp blades yet. It was clear they were not ready to trust Felanis. To an extent neither was he, but the fact remained that the Tal'darim Templar had spent about a whole year down in the very heart of the Xel'Naga sanctuary. Zamara may have visited this chamber as well, but her stay had been brief, only to carve a crystal fragment off the giant Khaydarin Crystal in order to save the life of Jake Ramsey.

This meant that when it came to knowledge of the crystal chamber along with everything it houses, Felanis knew more than any one of them. Although he knew the Tal'darim leader's word could not be fully trusted, it was essentially the same about the Xel'Naga prophecy. Few Protoss believed the words of the Overmind, but they had reluctantly admitted that it was the only being that held more clues on the matter. Similarly, Zeratul was convinced whatever Zamara had asked him to seek out was in this very chamber. Thus he needed to know everything he can about it, and Felanis was the only one who could give him the answers.

"What do you know of this chamber, Felanis?" He asked finally. "If you have truly been restored to the Khalai Protoss you once were, then you would know it is vital you give us this information."

The Tal'darim leader nodded slowly. "It is better I show you, Prelate Zeratul. I know you and your Dark Templar may not fully believe everything I say, so in order to convince you, I would have to let you see it with your own eyes."

* * *

**Bridge, Shield of Aiur**

Artanis looked over the reports still flowing in to his Mothership from the Protoss Observers. The massive numbers of slayed Zerg continued to be reported by every robotic drone. It's been 3 days since he had sent Executor Selendis to investigate the strange terran presence on Aiur, and during that time, Protoss warriors all over the planet had celebrated at their victory in the sectors they had reclaimed. By now, there were still approximately 133 million Zerg scattered across their homeworld, but if progress continued to be made at this rate, they will all be eradicated within a week.

As such, he had begun to turn his attention to the two Zerg strongholds left on Aiur: Antioch and the Overmind's final resting place. As the capital was less heavily defended, he had given orders to take the city first once the scattered Zerg were dealt with. Nevertheless, he had sent a few Observers to scout out the Zerg defending their dead master, and to see what they would be up against when the time came to cleanse them there.

Those reports were coming in just now, and thus far the picture was grim. Prelate Mohandar was on the communications screen, as the two Protoss discussed the strategy for such an assault.

"The greatest problem in this is that the body of the Overmind must be left intact," the Hierarch explained to the Nerazim. "I know most of our brethren would want to see it completely destroyed instead, but we need the corpse with minimal damage so that we can examine its cortex and learn all of its secrets."

"That will prove difficult," Mohandar replied. "It is highly unlikely the Zerg will leave their fortified positions in protecting their master. During his prior visit, some of them did leave their places to attack Zeratul and his warband, but there are some 600 million of them nestled around the Overmind right now. They would never all leave to attack us, no matter how likely the result that they might prevail."

"It is why I believe it will be necessary for us to assault the target after James Raynor has arrived on Aiur. I have no doubt he would anticipate that we would not be able to fully scour the Zerg by then, and he would lend his forces to assist us to complete the task."

"I have learned the terrans must not be underestimated, Hierarch. James Raynor had defeated Executor Selendis on Haven, and therefore is a testament to their capabilities, despite their inferior technology in comparison to the Daelaam Protoss."

"Hierarch, we have confirmation of what we have been dreading," a Templar announced. "There are three massive Zerg aerial creatures hovering above the rotting mass of the Overmind, each of them far larger than even the mighty Motherships."

"It appears to match the creature James Raynor had encountered on Char," Mohandar observed, looked at the Observer scans from his Void Ray screen.

"They are all more massive in scale," Artanis said grimly. "According to our Observers, the Zerg Leviathan James Raynor had encountered on Char was less than one third this size. It must mean the one he had defeated on Char was merely an infant and had yet to reach its maturity stage. Therefore, it would have been unable to fully utilize it true combat potential, and its strength would have been considerably weaker."

"What can we do against something of that power, Hierarch? The Leviathan is essentially an airborne Zerg hive cluster. The records from the battle at Char clearly indicated that even a youth carried aerial cocoons, and each of them could morph into Mutalisks, Corruptors, and Brood Lords. There is no telling what the sacs of a fully mature adult could carry."

"It is exactly why I had the Furinax Tribe of the Hierarchy began development of a ship vastly more powerful than even that of the Mothership a few years ago," Artanis answered. "By the time we were mustering our forces on Shakuras, the first of such mighty warships was nearing completion. By now, it should be fully operational, ready to begin the warp jump to Aiur."

* * *

**Hyperion, High Orbit Over New Folsom**

Jim looked out the window, sighing at the sight of volcanic planet of New Folsom from his quarters. Their arrival had not been picked up by the Dominion ships, but he had hoped to raid the prison the moment they had arrived.

Matt had convinced him that it's likely they'd only get one shot at the raid, so they would have to make it count. According to Nova who had been fortunate enough to visit the prison during one of such times, the vehicles, ships, and ammunition goods are moved out to the courtyards and out into the open only about 24 hours before the transport ships arrive. That way, in the event of a raid from pirates, mercenaries, or anyone else, the losses will be considered minimal in the event the attack is a success.

According to Swann who had briefly hacked into the New Folsom communications network, the transports will be arriving in two days. As such, it was better to wait until the supplies are moved into the open before the beginning the raid. For now, everyone is waiting aboard the ships, waiting for the sign of the transport activity detected down there. Most of his Raiders and the Dominion troops are asleep by now, ready for the next day.

For him however, sleep was near impossible. Ever since what had happened on Tarsonis, the cruelties and inhumanities of war had burned through him. It had already been too much for him to maintain his decency. Adding the loss of Kerrigan to the list, to which he finally realized he had fallen in love with, it had begun to unhinge him.

Now, he had become almost completely desensitized to war. Even his Raiders who he had valued for fighting with him for freedom and liberty, he had stopped calling them as soldiers, and rather as units. As he had once told Nova, he had ordered good people to their deaths, and virtually nothing had been accomplished. As time wore on, he began to stop mourning for them, and accepted them as necessary losses.

Yet he continued to convince himself that it was for the best. Yes the decisions had been coldhearted, but sending good people to their deaths is part of war, and there are times where cold and calculated decisions have to be made, so the greater number of people would be saved and benefit from it all. In the end, the people needed someone to be sacrificed so all of them could benefit. If he had to be that person, then so be it.

It was among the other reasons he had begun drinking so heavily. He felt that if he kept mourning for them like this, the emotions would eventually shatter him. The lack of emotion may be painful to his Raiders, but it allowed him to get the job done, and that's what counts. Deep down, he knew it was eating away the goodness in him, but it's a sacrifice that must be made. True he did cut down on it somewhat after Char, but he still used it as a means to bury his pains.

To his surprise, he suddenly heard a calming voice in his head just as he thought that.

_That will never happen, Jim. I won't let you. I've seen enough people in my life turn to the path of coldness and cruelty. I refuse for it to happen to you too._

Jim lifted up his head and looked around. "Sarah?"

_I knew all along what you did on Char came at a cost, but your loss of humanity is something I won't accept. You already gave me back mine, it's my turn to do the same._

The commander was still confused about what she was talking about, when the door suddenly slid open. Sarah stepped inside, looking every bit as confident as when he had first met her on Antiga Prime.

"What are you doing here?" Jim asked, suddenly blushing a little as he realized she wasn't wearing anything.

"What I should have done a long time ago," Kerrigan replied softly, wrapping her arms around him.

Almost instantly, every other thought in Jim's head vanished, as he and Sarah began doing what they should have done, the night before she went down to New Gettysburg by herself. All of his feelings he had for Sarah when he finally admitted it after Tarsonis suddenly rose to the surface, as Jim savored every second the way she explored his body.

Sarah embraced him passionately, thinking back to Char and the moment she was freed from the Zerg. She remembered Jim carrying her across the battlefield, and the joy she felt in Jim's arms. The bliss she had felt in that Jim freed her was more than she could have thought possible. This time, she would be the one to rescue him. She needed Jim to understand how she felt about him.

For Jim, Sarah's touch was like nothing he had ever experienced. He felt her warmth in a way he had never even thought possible, not even when he had married Lidya, and before her death. He closed his eyes and thought only of Sarah, as he felt her soft touch and warmth began to pacify his very soul. He could feel the coldness and cruelness within him gradually fading, replaced by feelings of love and compassion.

Sarah went deep into Jim's mind. She didn't have to read it at all to know he loved her, but she had to understand him. She felt the brightness of his spirit glow even brighter shortly after the two of them had first met on Antiga Prime. She felt his mourning for her after what had happened on Tarsonis, and then on an even greater scale after he had seen her reborn into the Zerg swarm as the Queen of Blades. She felt his determination to get her back when Valerian informed him the Xel'Naga device might be able to restore her. But above all, she felt his love, love that never once faded during the years she had been infested, love that prevented him from even thinking of moving on to someone else, keeping himself for her, in the hopes they would be reunited one day.

Every ice cold feeling in Sarah's heart instantly melted away, and as his thoughts continued to play out in her head, she knew Jim had to see what she should have shown him back on Char, had she had the strength to.

Suddenly, Jim felt Sarah's thoughts in his head, and her emotions flowed through his mind. He felt her struggling with her emotions right before Tarsonis, struggling whether to accept Jim into her life so deeply or not. He felt her psionically screaming for him when she had been imprisoned in the Zerg chrysalis. He felt her love for him as he carried her away from the battlefields of Char, but was unable to get him to feel it because she had been so greatly weakened by the Xel'Naga relic. He felt her despair when Nova had informed her that his humanity was slowly slipping away. And finally, he felt her determination, determination to bring him back just like the way he brought her back.

To Jim, these feelings had confirmed everything he believed and wanted to believe about her, from when she went down to Tarsonis all the way up to when he had found her restored on Char. It wasn't a dream, or fantasy, or illusion, or anything like that. It was real. She loved him.


	24. Chapter 24

**Author's Note: All right ladies and gentlemen. Since today marks the 1 year anniversary of Wing of Liberty's debut to society, I think it's the right day to update the fic as well. This chapter will mark the foreshadowing of the fighting to come in the next chapter, so I hope you enjoy reading this one!**

* * *

Chapter 24

**Bridge, Shield of Aiur**

"I do not understand, Hierarch," a Zealot said, confused. "The Mothership is the pinnacle of Protoss technology. The Khaydarin Crystal infused into its core grants it more psionic energy than any other ship in the history of the Protoss."

"You are correct, young warrior. However as I have experienced from fighting alongside the terrans, the sheer strength of one ship is no match for the overwhelming numbers of many. Although I must admit the Leviathans must be extremely difficult for the Zerg to hatch, and then breed to maturity and adulthood, they are still much easier to create in comparison to the Motherships we are to construct. Given their sheer size, it would take many Motherships to defeat a Leviathan. That is why a far greater and more powerful vessel is required, one that is capable of eradicating even the mightiest of the Zerg hive clusters within a short period of time. Our Motherships may have the planet cracker ability, but this only works on targets directly below the vessel. It would have little effect on flying targets such as the Leviathan. The new vessel that is being forged by the Furinax Tribe would have the power that rivaled our victory against the Zerg on Shakuras years ago."

Mohandar looked up from his console, immediately recognizing what Artanis was getting at. "You speak of harnessing the powers of the twin crystals Uraj and Khalis, Hierarch?"

"That is correct, Mohandar. Although the twin crystals were used to channel the energies of the Xel'Naga temple that scoured the Zerg from Shakuras, we had all known the combined powers of the Uraj and Khalis wielded the powers of the Khala and Void simultaneously. Mighty Tassadar had used both powers to defeat the Overmind, but despite his heroic actions, the dangers of combining the powers had clearly been seen. The Khalis had been known to the Dark Templar to be a potent weapon even before its usage on Shakuras, and there can be no doubt in my mind that the Uraj would have the same potential."

"But in both crystals lie energies far beyond what any one Protoss is capable of handling!" A Templar protested. "We Templars may have amulets carved from the Khaydarin Crystals themselves, but the energies within them are nothing in comparison to the might of the Uraj or Khalis!"

"I do not doubt that," Artanis replied. "But the Khaydarin Crystals are not a source of energy merely for individual Protoss warriors. We Templars use it has a means to enhance our psionic abilities, but the crystals are also used as an energy source for our great fleets. Before the fall of Aiur and the dissolution of the Conclave, the Protoss Judicators used to fly Arbiters. The ships have a Khaydarin Core forged into them so that their psionic abilities are increased. Our Warp Prisms' robotic cores have Khaydarin Crystals within them, so as to better improve their phasing capabilities in warping our warriors onto the battlefield. Even our Shield Battery buildings contain power from the crystals. It is from these crystals that grant the batteries their stores of psionic energy. As the Uraj and Khalis contain powers far too great for even a Mothership to control and properly wield, a mightier Protoss vessel is required."

"Do you believe this vessel will be ready to assist us in the oncoming struggle for Aiur?" Mohandar asked.

"It is difficult to say. From my experienced with the terrans, it is better to have the vessel properly tested through its trials to ensure what imperfections it may have be minimal in the event of battle. However the Zerg Leviathans may leave us with no alternative in the matter. This may have to depend on the part of James Raynor as well. His military forces must have been greatly weakened after the battle on Char, and I would expect him to use the time he has now to rebuild his fleet. We will adjust our plans accordingly when the time comes to assault the site of the Overmind. For now, we must continue to slay the Zerg scattered across Aiur. Once their eradication is complete, we will focus on the retaking of Antioch."

At this point, the transmission console suddenly blinked. "Hierarch, we are receiving a transmission from Executor Selendis," a Templar announced.

"Patch it through," Artanis ordered.

"En Taro Tassadar, Artanis," the female executor greeted. "My Observers have investigated the terran presence on Aiur, as you had requested."

"What did you discover about them?"

"I am transmitting the markings the Observers had found on their ships, buildings, and vehicles now, Hierarch."

The Protoss Hierarch looked carefully at the markings, and compared them to that of Jim Raynor's that Selendis's forces fought against on Haven. "These symbols are different from the warriors belonging to Jim Raynor. Rather, they appear to be similar to some of the ships our Observers had recorded during his invasion of Char. Jim Raynor had spoken to me about these belong to the terran military force known as the Dominion."

"Are they his allies?" Mohandar asked.

"The Dominion has been Jim Raynor's sworn enemy for quite a period of time," Artanis replied. "For years, even before the Zerg invasion, he had told me of his plan to topple this Dominion faction and restore freedom to the galaxy. However, due to the invasion and the threat of the Zerg, he and the Dominion had struck a temporary alliance to defeat the Queen of Blades. Now that Kerrigan is no longer the Zerg ruler, it would be likely that the alliance between them has also collapsed."

"Does this make them a threat to us?" Selendis asked.

"It is certainly a possibility. Friend Raynor had told me that the Dominion is also known for world conquest, spreading their influence to other worlds and gaining their trust and loyalties. Although there is very little evidence to suggest they would see us the same way they see the Zerg, caution is still necessary as we do not know how they will react to our presence."

"The Observers had picked up combat activity between them and our splinter tribe, the Tal'darim. It would appear their attacks have weakened them, as their base is on the move and moving away."

"The reports indicate they are not moving off Aiur," Mohandar said, looking at the recordings. "The terrans appear to be heading to the north."

Artanis observed the recordings with confusion. There was virtually nothing north of that location except small rivers and vast jungles. The scars of the Zerg infestation were still there, but the Daelaam Protoss forces have already been through the area. All the Zerg that once inhabited there had been eradicated, and all of the Observer reports from the fighting in that area had indicated there were no Protoss survivors at all.

"I do not understand, Hierarch," Selendis said, just as confused. "The direction that the terrans are heading is almost devoid of life. Even prior to the Zerg invasion of Aiur, there had been very few records of Protoss settlements ever in that area."

"There is nothing there but one of our ancient temples," Artanis said thoughtfully. "The Protoss Aiur Vanguard had defended it bravely during the invasion, but they were eventually overwhelmed by the Zerg, and the temple was destroyed. All that remains are just ruins, and it had been our intention to rebuild it once we have purified the planet."

"What could the terrans possibly want with that? The sanctuary and its treasures it once held have either been lost or removed. There is nothing for them to gain there."

"Nothing that we know of, anyway. Are the Tal'darim giving pursuit to them?"

"It would appear so, Hierarch. My Observers have detected the movement of Colossi heading north, also towards the temple ruins."

"Return to my position at once, but keep your Observers in the area, Selendis. Clearing Aiur of the Zerg is our first priority, but we must know what the terrans are after as well. Once we have scoured the veil creatures from Antioch, Jim Raynor's forces will be needed to facilitate in the clearing of the Zerg nestled around their deceased master, so we will wait for that. During that time, we will turn our attention to the terrans if they are still on this world."

Suddenly, a Templar transmission appeared on Artanis's communications screen. "Hierarch, we have detected increased Zerg activity from Prelate Zeratul's last known position. Admiral Urun and his forces are still holding to their positions, but the constant Zerg attacks have begun to take its toll on them."

Artanis nodded. "Prelate Mohandar, set course for Urun's location immediately. Zeratul had requested that what he intended to discover here on Aiur must never be defiled by the Zerg, we must ensure that."

"It will be done, Hierarch."

The Protoss Hierarch then turned his channel to the Mothership pilots. "My brethren, in a few more days the rest of Aiur will be in our possession once more. However the assault on Antioch will be our most difficult challenge thus far. We must bring in our mightiest ground war machines, ones that far surpass even the mighty Colossus in power."

"You speak of the Exussumers, Hierarch?"

"The very ones, Templar. When Executor Selendis had fought James Raynor on Haven, our Observers had recorded his forces had a hybrid machine known as the Viking. It was by the hand of this machine that had destroyed our mighty Purifier. It had become clear to me then that the Daelaam Protoss would require a machine with such capabilities. The information her Observers had recorded had been sent to the Furinax Tribe of the Hierarchy on Shakuras, and they had forged a machine far mightier than the terran Viking, able to burn entire Zerg armies to ashes."

"Why were we denied the chance to use them the moment we returned to Aiur, Hierarch?"

"As I had learned from the terrans, there are times where we must be careful in when to reveal our technology. The fact that the Zerg are now leaderless does not mean they are no longer able to think intelligently. Had we used the Exussumers then, we certainly would have annihilated the Zerg in the immediate area, but they would have prepared more accordingly elsewhere on Aiur. We had all known that eventually the Zerg would recover with the loss of the Queen of Blades, and therefore we have but one chance to take back our homeworld."

"We understand, Hierarch. The Exussmers are ready for deployment by our Motherships at your command."

"Deploy all of the Motherships transporting the Exussmers to the immediate vicinity of Antioch. They must be in position to strike when the time comes."

* * *

**Captain's Quarters, Hyperion, High Orbit Over New Folsom**

Jim opened his eyes groggily. For the first time since Tarsonis, he fell asleep not haunted by the nightmares, nightmares that tortured him for years, and that he had thought he conquered by excess drinking. But in reality, he had made no progress at all, and they had tested him to his very limits when Kerrigan had led the Zerg swarm in the invasion once again.

Only when he struck the alliance with Valerian did he finally begin to face his past, and to understand what had to be done. But even that had been strained on Char, during the time he had defended the Xel'Naga artifact. Although the defenses had held despite Sarah's personal intervention, seeing her as the Queen of Blades only made his heart ache even more. Even after he had gotten her back, he was continuously haunted by the fear of seeing her become infested again. The last 4 years had been absolute hell on him seeing her as the Zerg infested leader, and he didn't know if he could handle something like that happening a second time. It had been why although he made few objections for Sarah going back into the field again, the fear of losing her become almost too much for him to bear.

Now, after what had happened last night, all those thoughts had vanished. Sarah knew everything about how he felt about her, and she accepted him for who he was. He heard her thoughts to him, that she would never leave him.

Jim opened his eyes fully, to see Sarah resting on his body, her face smiling up at him. He gently brushed aside her fiery red hair, soft as silk to his touch, revealing her emerald eyes and pale face. And he suddenly realized he had no doubt she would be the savior of all. After all the fighting he had experienced against the Dominion as well as the Zerg, he had lost virtually lost hope of kindness and compassion, and had given in to the coldness of cruelty. He had been on the verge of accepting it, but Sarah wouldn't. She had brought his humanity back the same way he brought hers back, refusing to see him suffer any longer.

Kerrigan gently traced her fingers along Jim's face. "Now do you understand the preciousness of life, Jim? It is why we have to revel in it and cherish it no matter the cost, regardless of how painful that may be. You taught me all of this during the time I've known you before I had been taken by the Zerg, I'm just helping you remember it all."

Jim held Sarah closely to him. She was right after all. During the times they fought under the Sons of Korhal, he had seen her coldness to others eventually soften, especially to him. And last night, it had confirmed everything he had wanted to believe: her feelings for him were every bit as strong as his for her, but like him she just wasn't ready to admit it just yet. She had been afraid, afraid to let him into her life so deeply because she knew if she let that happen, she wouldn't be able to let go. It was exactly what he had felt about her, and he knew as long as he had Sarah, he would have everything he would ever need.

"You're so precious to me, Sarah," he whispered softly to her. "You lost so much already, a victim to some of the cruelest matters this universe could offer. Yet you were able to regain so much back."

Sarah brushed her fine mane of hair away from Jim's face, savoring the feeling of warmth against her. "I want to regain it back with you. You're everything I could ever hope for. You gave me something no one else could: a measure of peace. It was something I had wanted long before I was part of the Sons of Korhal."

Jim nodded, holding her tightly against him. "I will always be here for you, Sarah. That will never change again."

"So what now, Jim?" she asked. "What is our next step from here?"

The commander looked out the window for a moment. "In a few more hours it'll be time for us to strike at New Folsom. Nova will be leading the raid."

"Then I'll go join her," Sarah replied. "Two ghosts are always better than one."

* * *

**Xel'Naga Caverns, Aiur**

"What is all this, Felanis?" Zeratul demanded, looking wide eyed at the corpses of Khalai Protoss in the chamber.

"These bodies are the result of our master Ulrezaj and what he had asked of the Xava'kai," the Templar replied. "He had occasionally asked for Tal'darim volunteers to go with him for tasks which he did not specify. They were never seen or heard from again after that, and now you see the results, among the other functions of the vast Khaydarin Crystal you see before you in draining the very life essence out of the Protoss."

Felanis then pointed to some of the bodies. "The Xava'kai had remained loyal to Ulrezaj to the very end. Among the most favored ones he had killed this way were Rukashal, Tervoris, and Azramith. Of course, the crystal is capable of killing more than just Protoss, and that is why you see the Zerg bodies present as well."

"And what could Ulrezaj possibly want with both Protoss and Zerg essence drained in such a manner?" A Dark Templar demanded.

"Did you comprehend nothing from the creatures in the vats I had shown you, Nerazim? Ulrezaj never intended to have the Protoss or Zerg energies kept within the Khaydarin Crystal. Rather, it was his intention to merge the energies together to create a completely new type of creature, one that I do not understand."

"I do," Zeratul said, turning his sight towards the vats again. "These are Protoss and Zerg hybrids, I had encountered them before."

"You know their real purpose?" Felanis asked.

"Yes, they are tools of the apocalypse, the end of all things. I had seen their power first hand when I faced one on Zhakul. They must not be taken lightly."

"Then we should destroy the ones here immediately, Prelate Zeratul!" A Dark Templar said, raising his warp blade.

"I know their destruction is vital," Zeratul said calmly. "But let us not be too hasty. The creatures we see now look very similar to the ones present in the apocalyptic vision we had all seen. From that, we had known how powerful they are, and how difficult they are to kill. Right now, however, they are in hibernation. Although emanating psionic energy, they are currently dormant."

"You ask us to allow them to live?" The Dark Templar asked.

"I ask that they are not to be destroyed here. While the hybrids are extremely powerful, every creation is far from flawless. These creatures must be what Zamara had asked me to locate in this sacred sanctuary. We will bring the vats out to the surface for examination for greater weaknesses in these monstrocities. They will be eradicated once we have learned what is necessary."

* * *

**Prison Complex Exterior, New Folsom**

Nova smirked as Sarah emerged from the metallic drop pod to join her on the outskirts of the prison complex. "I see someone's had quite a night," she commented, looking at Sarah's slightly disheveled red hair.

"It was you who said for me to bring the old Jim back," Sarah replied, smiling at the thoughts of last night herself. "I simply did just that."

"Great, appeal to his testosterone of all things. The Hyperion is full of men with that," the blond ghost said, shaking her head. "Even Jim is no exception to this."

"Trust me, Nova. I already knew that within a few seconds when I first met him on Antiga Prime. A simple mind probe was more than enough for me to see him as a pig, but at least he was a competent pig."

"Whatever, let's just get this mission on the road."

Nova's comm-link then went off, as Jim's voice was heard. "All right Nova, we've got the intel for you and Sarah. The place is still locked down tight and it's going to take a huge force to break in now."

"The New Folsom securities were specifically designed for that," Nova replied. "The constant crust instability made flanking attacks impossible, so everyone knew attacking it would have to be done head on. That's why the security defenses are built to channel your forces into killing zones. Even with everything you got at your disposal the casualties will be appalling."

"Any suggestions on how to get around it?"

"The defense system was never intended for small groups of attacks, and a talented few in the right place could find a way in."

"All right, then it's going to have to depend on you and Sarah to do the work."

"My thoughts exactly, Jim. You keep your forces to the rear, we'll call on you if it comes down to emergencies. Sarah and I will lead and clear the way."

"You sure you're ready for this, Nova? We've detected large concentrations of Dominion ghosts as part of the security force too."

Nova snorted. "Before joining the Raiders, I was the strongest Dominion ghost there is. All the other ghosts have taken their training based on me, and I've even been called to New Folsom a few times that very reason."

"You trained the ghost operatives here?" Sarah asked, incredulous.

"Exactly. Too often Mengsk felt their performance levels were too crappy by his standards, so I was sent to improve them. Half the ghosts in the security force are as skilled as they are because of what I did for them. Since I was the one who trained them, I know all their strengths, as well as all their weaknesses."

Matt Horner's voice came on Nova's comm. "Our intel has shown there are over 1.8 million prisoners in the whole complex right now. The complex is divided up into one main prison facility, housing around 40 percent of the prisoners, and 12 secondary facilities containing the rest."

"The main one has the strongest defenses," Nova explained. "No assault by anyone in the last 50 years has ever succeeded in even coming close to cracking them, so Sarah and I will deal with that. Once we take care of that, the rest of the facilities will fall like dominoes."

"It appears most of the military cell blocks are also located in the main prison facility."

"I'll get their cages open," Sarah offered. "They may not be so trusting of Nova, but I'm a different matter. The security guards will have their hands full dealing with the prisoners while Nova and I push for the main entrance."

"It's settled then," Jim commented. "You two ready for this?"

"We're striking another blow towards Mengsk and his corrupt government," Nova said, cocking her C-20 Canister Rifle. "Of course we're ready."

* * *

**Author's Note: For those of you who do not know, Exussume in Latin means "to burn". In the future chapters, you'll see the new Protoss war machine in action.**

**As for the reason why I decided to give the Protoss such a war machine (since this one is not based off any canceled Blizzard ideas or anything), well that idea is a nod towards Guardian54's fic "Supreme Commander: Koprulu Sector", and once again, it was somewhat based off the Haven missions.**

**I felt it was wrong that terrans learn off Protoss technology and nothing ever happens the other way around. By now the Daelaam Protoss are smart enough to know that some terran weapon ideas could also be used in their own arsenal, and I didn't want to deny them such an opportunity simply because of old fashioned traditions.**

**Anyways, I hope this chapter was enjoyable for you guys. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next chapter.  
**


	25. Chapter 25

**Author's Note: Ladies and Gentlemen, with the Agria battles behind us, I know a few of you have been looking forward to what will be taking place on New Folsom, so this chapter is to do just that.**

**Unlike on Agria, the New Folsom battles will show a bigger turning point in Kerrigan's struggle for redemption.**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter 25

**Temple Ruins, Aiur**

"All right gentlemen, it's time to dig in again," General Ridgeway announced. "There's no Zerg in the area, but those damn Protoss that we were battling earlier have been chasing us. The first of their units will be there in less than an hour."

"Sir, why do we have to set up our defenses here?" A firebat asked, as Vultures moved around the infantrymen, laying their Spider Mines for potential ambushes. "Those temple ruins make good defensive positions themselves, and the Protoss will have a harder time digging us out of the rubble."

"You're right, soldier. But unfortunately I'm under specific orders to prevent any damage to those ruins."

"What for, sir?" A marine asked. "We don't care about the Protoss religion or any of that crap."

"It's not about us," the general replied. "Mengsk believes there's something in those temple ruins that will bring the Dominion military to its former glory again. I don't know what it is myself, but give the state of the Dominion after what happened on Korhal and the broadcasts of the Char invasion, I'd say I'm willing to put a little faith in something I don't fully understand."

A Dominion officer nearby nodded, supporting Ridgeway, "You have to understand something here people," he said calmly. "The temple may be just a pile of rocks to us, but they're still sacred to the Protoss, ruins or not. If they have to bring in their heavy artillery and end up being forced to destroy their holy ground to get to us, they'll be even less merciful."

"They were trying to kill us before we could even locate this place! That's brutal enough!"

"They saw us invading their territory," Ridgeway replied. "I would have done similarly if I were them. Now, let's just set up whatever defenses we've still got left, and hope our engineers can do their job quickly."

He then turned on his comm-link to their channel. "Engineering team, have you located the package yet?"

"We have, general. There isn't as much as we had hoped for, but it'll do. Excavating it won't be easy though. I doubt even the Protoss have technology that can do it fast."

"The Protoss are bringing their big guns to the area! How long do you think it'll take?"

"Even under ideal conditions, at least 3 hours, sir."

Ridgeway clenched his fist in frustration. The air forces he had were still reasonably strong, but they still weren't meant for attritional combat. While the reconnaissance scouts have reported relatively few Protoss air units closing in on their position, that could all change if too many get shot down.

The situation is no better on the ground. Although he still had a few Thors left, they were small in number compared to the groups of Protoss Colossi approaching the temple ruins. To make things worse, the Colossi were purely robotic machines, which means that they could be easily replaced, while the same could not be said for each Thor pilot lost here. The spider mines laid by the vultures would handle the Zealots and Stalkers, but would have little effect against the Immortals due to their hardened shields. The hellions could be used to counter that, as their flame attacks wouldn't trigger the shields, but they also had short range, and getting within that close range would make them easy targets for the Immortals' phase disruptors, assuming they weren't roasted by the Colossi first. It's hoped that the siege tanks would keep robotic walkers busy, but that's going to have to depend on how many Colossi are being sent in to attack them. Support from the BattleCruisers this time would have to be minimal, as the plasma torpedo barrage cannot be used to pinpoint accuracy, and therefore would be considered too risky to be used frequently without damaging the ruins.

"It looks like some things we'll just have to take on faith," the general said finally, before turning to the infantrymen and gestalts on the ground. "Whatever the engineers have found in those ruins is vital to the Dominion's task at hand. It's likely the Protoss will throw everything they have against us to get their holy ground back. They must be held off until the excavation is complete, so we'll give them hell until then."

* * *

**New Folsom Prison, New Folsom**

"They always had weak security at the entrance gate," Nova observed, as she advanced forward with Sarah. "The marines there are mostly cannon fodder, meant to trick intruders into a false sense of confidence as they go deeper into the complex."

"Jim knows what he's doing," Kerrigan assured. "We lead the way, he'll take care of the rest."

Nova nodded, before stepping into view of the lone marine at the gate.

"This complex is off limits to unauthorized ghosts...Nova? Halt, you're under arrest for treason and defection!"

The marine barely got the last words out before he screamed in agony, as Nova used a psychic attack that permanently fried his brain.

"Go to hell," she muttered, before gesturing to Sarah. "See? Nice and easy. Let's move."

The two ghosts moved forward, past the gates, briefly stopping to see a group of marines near a missile turret. "Too many of them to just run past," Sarah observed. "We'll have to shoot our way in."

Nova nodded, unleashing another psychic attack, sending 6 or 7 marines screaming before felling to the ground dead, but the remaining ones immediately picked up on the intruders as they had stepped within the turret's detection range.

"Sound the alarm! We've got intruders!" A marine shouted, before exploding in a pile of blood and guts as his fragmentation grenade pins were telekinetically pulled. Sarah then fired a fragmentation grenade of her own at the turret via her C-20 Canister Rifle. As the structure exploded in a fireball, the two ghosts continued to move forward.

They moved down the road, towards one of the military cell blocks, before Sarah held up her hand, signaling Nova to stop. "Siege tanks, let me handle them."

Channeling her psionic powers, Kerrigan telekinetically lifted the tank off the ground over the screams of its driver, and hurled it into the magma below. Nova picked off more marines with her sniper rifle from a distance, but one of them was far enough to bolt towards an alarm before she could deliver the kill shot. Immediately, alarms went off throughout the whole prison complex.

"Don't worry about it," Sarah said. "You said it yourself the defenses aren't designed for small groups of infiltrators."

Nova nodded, before moving up the ramp overlooking two bunkers. In a move that rivaled Sarah's skill shots, she aimed an irradiation grenade into one of the bunkers' firing slits. The chokes and screams of the marines inside ensured it had found its target.

"There they are!" A voice shouted. Nova and Sarah turned to see groups of marines, marauders, and firebats heading towards them. "Kill them!"

"There are times I wonder why they keep sending the most expendable units first," Sarah commented, as she telekinetically pulled the pins of the fragmentation grenades from the marines. The explosion was massive, as it engulfed the firebats' fuel tanks.

A nearby vulture sped quickly towards them, getting ready to fire, but Nova used psionic powers to unleashed pure inertia at it, instantly flipping it over. Getting the message, Sarah immediately telekinetically raised it up into the air, as Nova used her psionic powers to yank one of the spider mines out of the vulture and hurled it at the other siege tank, the explosion flipping it onto its back.

Sarah cloaked as she saw more marines move in towards them. Nova purposely kept her cloak off, but used her psionic speed abilities to run at 4 times her normal speed, leading the marines to fire at a target who's speed is something they're not used to. As they continued to fire at Nova, Sarah carefully moved from behind, slitting their throats with her combat knife.

"Move towards the first military cell block!" Sarah said, decloaking, as she and Nova kept running forward.

"Stop the intruders! Don't let them get any further!" A marine shouted, before meeting his end by a bullet headshot from Nova. However the message got through, as Goliaths and Vikings were mobilized against the two ghosts.

"I hope your knife skills are as good against the goliath pilots!" Nova shouted, as she unleashed a psionic shock attack. Immediately, the goliaths began stumbling about as the attack temporarily shut down the pilots' brains.

Sarah jumped into the air and landed on the top of a goliath's cockpit. Pulling out her knife, she telekinetically ripped the covers off and stabbed the pilot. The nearby Vikings turned their Gatling guns towards her and prepared to fire, but Sarah unleashed a psionic storm over them. As they were grouped so closely together, they were all blown apart by its destructive power.

More and more marines were fed into the carnage, but to no avail. Nova simply used her psionic powers to jam their C-14 Gauss Rifles, and Sarah soon followed through. Although some of the marines were quick to pull out their sidearms, it made no difference as the skilled shots of the two ghosts mowed them down with their C-20 Canister Rifles.

Just then, Sarah's eyes widened. Hellions were approaching them. Although she and Nova both had pyrokinesis psionic abilities channel fire, this was something that was better done by one alone.

"Nova, get to higher ground!" she shouted. "I'll take care of the Hellions, you focus on the missile turrets!"

The blond ghost nodded, before once again using her psionic speed abilities to run past the marauders. As they chased her down, Nova leapt into the air and threw a EMP grenade at them. The explosion caused their CMC suits to stop functioning due to electrical system failure, and she was easily able to snipe them all before they recovered.

"Come and get me!" Sarah shouted, as the Hellions began firing at her with their flamethrowers. Quickly bolting away, the Hellions gave chase to her, but Sarah used her psionic speed ability to move quickly. As the Hellions slowly closed in, they unleashed their fire again, but she had lured them into a trap. Using her pyrokinesis ability, Sarah channeled the flame into an explosive fuel tank, before channeling her psionic powers into a psionic barrier. As the tank exploded, the area was consumed by flames. The Hellions were set ablaze and their drivers screaming as they were burned alive, but Sarah was able to slip away unharmed as the psionic barrier protected her from harm.

Further forward, Nova telekinetically used one of the marauders' punisher grenades on the missile turret, blowing it apart. Sarah unleashed another psionic storm on the remaining turret, and it too succumbed to its power.

Just then, the warehouse doors Nova and Sarah were standing nearby opened. Siege tanks rumbled out, followed by goliaths and vultures.

"Intruders spotted! Preparing to terminate!"

Sarah immediately casted a psionic storm in their direction, but the Vikings transformed into their flight mode and flew over it. Nova used her psionic inertia blast, but she wasn't as strong as Sarah and therefore had to focus on the goliaths. Although the mechanical walkers stumbled, they were able to regain their balance, and their autocannons opened fire on Nova.

To Nova's surprise, however, the bullets stopped before her very eyes. The blond ghost turned to see Kerrigan had used her psionic powers to provide a barrier for her. Nova looked at Sarah amazed. She was indeed very powerful.

"Give them hell, Nova!" the red head shouted.

The blond complied, taking aim with her rifle and firing off the armor piercing rounds. With her precise aiming, Nova was able to hit all the goliath pilots between the eyes, as the mechanical walkers stopped dead in their tracks, no longer capable of further combat with their pilots dead.

"Sarah! The siege tanks!" Nova shouted, as the siege tanks began to deploy into their siege modes. Her telekinetic skills were strong, but not enough to pick up a siege tank and lift it way high up into the air like Kerrigan could.

"Get to the cell blocks!" Sarah said, diving for cover behind one of the goliaths. "I'll deal with them!"

Nova cloaked and ran, as Sarah used her telekinesis on one of the Vikings. Its engine screamed as it was pulled from the sky against its will, and Sarah hurled it down one of the tanks, blowing it apart in an enormous fireball. Another one took aim and fired its shock cannons, but Sarah used her psionic speed to run for cover as it blew the goliath apart.

Looking up to see she was directly underneath a Viking, Sarah telekinetically lifted the siege tank up into the air and hurled it at the hybrid vehicle. Bolting away, Sarah turned around to see another fireball from the explosion caused from the collision. Without sparing another thought, she immediately took off after Nova, as the remaining siege tanks returned to their tank modes and began chasing after her, as did the Vikings still in the air.

As she neared one of the cell blocks, one of the Vikings suddenly exploded above her. Sarah turned to see Nova, telekinetically holding a spider mine from a vulture up in the air, having hurled one already to destroy the Viking. "Just repaying you back," she smiled.

Sarah beamed. The training she and Nova had back on Haven had benefited both of them greatly. She pulled the overturned vulture next to Nova and threw it at the siege tank. While the damage was minimal, it did cause the tank to stop moving and began transforming into its siege mode again. Taking advantage of the lull, Sarah unleashed an inertia blast at it, flipping it onto its side.

Channeling her psionic powers, the red haired ghost yanked the fuel tank from its underbelly off the tank and telekinetically threw it at the remaining Viking in the air.

"Nova, do it!" Kerrigan shouted.

The blond took aim and fired, hitting the fuel tank square on. Immediately, there was another explosion in the air, as the Viking was blown to pieces by the sheer explosive power.

"Where's the cell block?" Sarah asked. "I thought we're near it now."

"We are," Nova replied. "But I couldn't get to it. There's a bunker positioned right outside it, with Banshee gunships in the air and some Siege Tanks under it. I took out the 5 ghosts positioned outside the bunker, but now they moved a Raven into the area."

Sarah nodded. "Lure the Raven out, I'll deal with the Banshees and the Siege Tank."

Nova cloaked again, as she moved into the Raven's detection range, before firing off a few shots at the Siege Tank. This distraction allowed Sarah to move into position.

"Over here!" the blond ghost shouted, as a Banshee immediately opened up with its backlash rockets. Using her psionic speed, Nova bolted away as the Raven immediately gave chase to her.

Sarah dodged a shock cannon blast from one of the Siege Tanks, as the Banshees fired at her with her backlash rockets. Channeling her psionic powers, she unleashed a psionic barrier at a greater distance from her. As the Banshee rockets are programmed to detonate on impact, this barrier stopped them dead in their tracks without exploding.

Without another thought, Sarah unleashed pure inertia and hurled the rockets backwards, many of them smashing into the Siege Tanks below. The Banshee pilots watched in horror as a single lone ghost turned their own weapons against them, killing their own allies in the process. The thoughts of horror quickly vanished, and replaced by pain, as Sarah casted a psionic storm on the Banshees, and knocked them out of the sky this way.

From a distance, Nova saw the Banshees go down by Sarah's hand. With no prospect of support, she knew the Raven was now defenseless. Nova pulled a fragmentation grenade from a nearby marine's corpse and threw it at the Raven. Although it survived the explosion, the Raven was smart enough to scurry away. Nova made her way back to Sarah's position, killing more security marines with her rifle and psionic abilities along the way.

When she reached Sarah, Nova found her hiding behind the wreck of one of the Siege Tanks, with numerous Vikings positioned right in front of the military cell block, their Gatling guns blazing. Sprinting quickly, she moved to the wreckage to join Kerrigan.

"They're finally starting to turn up the heat on us," Sarah said. "The two missile turrets next to the Vikings prevent us from using the cloak, and the Vikings have been constantly firing even since I've hidden behind this cover."

"Any idea how to get past them?" Nova asked.

Kerrigan smiled. "Leave it to me, Nova."

* * *

**Dominion Prison HQ, New Folsom**

Colonel Winters scowled in frustration as reports flooded in that the main defense line had been completely shattered, with dead marines, marauders, firebats, and ghosts lying everywhere. The wreckage of over 200 Siege Tanks, Vultures, Goliaths, Banshees and Vikings were also strewn across the battlefield. To make things worse, the reports have clearly indicated that the infiltrators were not even contained, let alone subdued.

"But how is any of this possible?" He demanded to an officer on the ground via his communications console. "All the reports I'm getting is there's only two intruders! You're telling me your entire security force can't even handle two pathetic people?"

"They're both ghosts, sir. And their abilities are more powerful than we had expected."

"So what if they're both ghosts? Did you forget our ghosts are trained by the very best? Nova Terra turned them into an unstoppable fighting force!"

"Sir, one of the ghosts attacking us _is_ Nova Terra. She betrayed us and turned to Raynor and his boys. Now she's leading the attack for them on our prison. Since she trained our ghost operatives, she knows all of our fighting methods, as well as all of our weaknesses."

Winters slumped a little in his chair. "And the visits she's made here mean she also knows the weakness of the whole New Folsom security system. Who is the other ghost fighting alongside her?"

"It would appear to be Sarah Kerrigan, sir. She had disappeared completely since the fall of the Confederate world of Tarsonis, don't know when she suddenly reappeared though. Since she's fighting with Nova Terra, that must mean she's part of Raynor's Raiders as well."

Winters gritted his teeth in frustration. He was going up against two of the most powerful psionically gifted terrans ever. Fortunately, Mengsk's special delivery will be able to even out the odds.

* * *

**Gestalt Barracks, New Folsom**

Gestalt 622 looked at his right arm's transmission receiver. A message had been sent to him and the other 34 gestalts upon their arrival to New Folsom only a few days ago. He flipped it on to read the transmission given to him by Colonel Winters, the New Folsom security commander:

**Hostile intruders detected attacking prison complex. Rendezvous with remaining security forces to prevent prisoner escapes. Top priority: terminate Nova Terra and Sarah Kerrigan.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Author's Note: Everyone, the next chapter is here! Was lucky to find the time to write this one due to summer school.**

**At the end of this chapter though, I encourage you to look back at chapter 17, and the last part I had written in it.**

**If you go back and look, you will see the connect between the last part of chapter 17, and the second half of this chapter.**

**Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter 26

**High Orbit Over Redstone III**

General Madison frowned as Mengsk gave him the further news. After all the Zerg attacks from Redstone III, all of his boys were happy to be off the planet still alive. The payload of the mineral crystals meant nothing to them as it wasn't worth their lives. Besides, they had no psionic potential so it whatever their emperor had planned wasn't for them anyway.

Now, however, the general was being told to head off to another planet to collect the remaining substance: terrazine gas. He knew both components were necessary for whatever Mengsk had planned, but he didn't think he'd have to be the one to retrieve them both.

"Sir, unless we're going to a place that's virtually devoid of life, I doubt my boys will agree to it," Madison explained on the communications screen. "The attacks from the Zerg on Redstone III took a terrible toll on all of them. The infantry strength is down to less than 15 percent, mechanized ground strength down to barely 20 percent, and air support at 27 percent. Factor in all the ammunition expended to defend the mining operation, those levels are down to only 12 percent. If we have to defend another mining operation against attacks like that, we'll be lucky to survive even a single attack."

"So be more stealthy, general," Mengsk replied. "I told you to steal the jorium from under the Zerg's noses, not shoot your way in and force them to hand it over."

"Sir, the location of the substances is not something I can control. Whoever gets to it first has the opportunity to fortify the area. Once that happens, anyone else who wants to take it has to fight on his terms."

"I understand that. That's why I'll be sending some reinforcements for you. Won't be as much as you'd like, but it should help in the terrazine mining operation."

"Why can't we just use the terrazine refinery on Mar Sara? We built it there less than a year ago."

"The recent Zerg invasion ruled out that possibility, general. Remember, we're not the only race that wanted this substance. The Zerg and Protoss have applications for it as well. I have no doubt the Dominion fleet can wipe out all the Zerg in Mar Sara, but the reports from my scouts have clearly indicated that the Zerg have already taken all the terrazine there. Attacking them won't gain us anything."

"You got another location in mind, sir?"

"Just one: Bel'Shir. It's some sort of a jungle moon in the Mackan System. There have been the occasional Dominion fly bys near it, but none of us have actually set foot on it, so you'll be the first."

"Do we know the moon's inhabitants?"

Mengsk shrugged. "Orbital scans have indicated some Protoss monuments, shrines, and altars there, so they'd probably still be on that moon when you get there. The altars are where the sources of terrazine are coming from, so you'll have to take it from there. The scans have indicated there's a far greater concentration of terrazine compared to Mar Sara, so I doubt collecting it will be much of a problem."

Madison frowned. "Unlike the Zerg, technically we're not at war with the Protoss, sir. If the terrazine signals are coming from altars, that must mean they'll consider it a religious relic. I don't much like the idea of barging in there and fighting them over it."

"So be diplomatic. You just said we're not really at war with them, so maybe they'll let us walk away with it. If not, just be sneaky. Take from under their noses, and leave before they even know what's going on."

The general paused, thinking about the situation. While he had hoped to avoid more bloodshed, he knew there was no such guarantee. The reports he had received from General Ridgeway on Aiur had clearly indicated the hostility of the Protoss to the terrans. It deeply frustrated him in that they were on friendly terms with Raynor and his Raiders, while attacking the Dominion on sight. Clearly while Mengsk had made the rebel commander to be a terrorist, the Protoss never got the media message. On the other hand, whatever message Raynor sent to the Protoss of the Dominion they had heeded without question.

He was hoping on Aiur it was merely a matter of the Protoss attacked Ridgeway's forces because they were trespassing on their homeworld, but he already suspected the terrazine being something holy to the Protoss. They may be of a different culture to the terrans, but desecrating a holy site is hardly something that would go unpunished. All he could hope for was to land on the moon, get what they came for, and get out as quickly as possible.

This, however, seemed unlikely. These were altars were the terrazine gas was being stored, not some vespene refinery. Thus it would be logical to assume the extraction process would take much longer, and the longer they stayed, the likelier the Protoss would react to them with animosity.

Madison himself was not a desk general. He left diplomacy and politics up to the government, not soldiers. Despite no all-out war with the Protoss, he did not believe in indefinite peaceful resolutions. That was one of the major flaws in Mengsk's constant expansion of the Dominion, as inevitably this will lead to encounters on worlds where the inhabitants will be unwilling to join hands with the Dominion. In the case with the Protoss, he had every reason to believe they wouldn't be so diplomatic to them, as that would send the message the Dominion is free to take whatever they wanted from the Protoss without the slightest fear of retaliation.

Mengsk noticed the general's silence and spoke into the screen, "You really think diplomacy won't work?"

"Everyone's luck runs out eventually, sir. You can't expect the diplomacy tactic to work forever."

"Then just make do with the forces I'm giving you, general. You're not going there to wipe the Protoss out anyway."

The general saw there was no point in arguing further, as Mengsk was simply refusing to accept the terrazine mining operation won't be successful, so he gave a curt nod to his emperor and turned off the communications screen. He then nodded to the ship's captain. "Take us to Bel'Shir, skipper. Let's hope this time the resource collecting won't result in a bloodbath."

* * *

**New Folsom**

"Jim, are you reading all this?" Nova asked.

"What the hell are those things?" the commander demanded. "They look like ghosts with parts of Protoss technology infused into them."

"There was a secret project the Dominion had conducted, though I thought it was pure myth," the blond ghost replied. "Rumor had it that Mengsk wanted a new generation of super soldiers, starting with ghosts. It was said that the Dominion captured individual Protoss because of their high psionic abilities. They would then be genetically spliced into the ghosts to create what is called a gestalt, a Terran-Protoss hybrid type ghost."

"This just keeps getting better and better. It was bad enough of the Protoss-Zerg hybrid we encountered at Castanar. Now Mengsk is breeding a whole new variety."

"I've never seen anything like it myself, Jim. There's no telling what they're capable of."

"Well at least you've spotted them before they spotted you. Stay hidden for now and wait for Sarah to join you."

Nova nodded. She had ventured ahead after they had taken care of the Vikings. Kerrigan's psionic powers had paid off greatly, using the entire siege tank as a shield as they advanced forward. When they were within a reasonable distance, Sarah had used her telekinesis to swing the whole vehicle as a weapon, easily smashing the Vikings apart. As Nova had predicted, the prisoners were uncomfortable in seeing a Dominion ghost as a liberator, and they welcomed Sarah much more openly. As such, the red head had remained behind to bust open the cell blocks, while Nova was to scout ahead to see if the Dominion security guards had any surprises awaiting them.

"Do not engage these monstrosities just yet," Jim warned. "You may have been the strongest ghost in the Dominion, but you know as well as I do that the Protoss are psionically stronger than the average terran ghost. These hybrids could be stronger than you."

"We have to fight them one way or another," Nova replied, still hiding behind the wreckage of a Goliath.

"I know, but I want to see first-hand just how powerful these things are. The cell blocks you and Sarah just liberated had Hellions in them, remember?"

"You're just going to use them as cannon fodder?"

"Of course not, Nova. But you know how angry they are at Mengsk that the moment they're released it's impossible to control their anger. They'll probably go into a wild attack on the Dominion security anyway. If it fails, you and Sarah can rally the others to attack more strategically. I don't like that strategy myself in expending them like that, but as of this moment they're not part of the Raiders yet."

Suddenly, a small light refraction shined next to Nova, as Sarah decloaked next to her. "Jim, I was able to get a slightly closer look at these things. I don't think you're going to like the news."

"What did you find out?"

"These gestalts as Nova called them have parts of the Protoss power suits built on them, very similar to the Zealots I fought when I had been infested. In particular, their right arms appear to have the part of the suit that allows them to use psionic blades in battle. The cybernetic leg parts are also of Protoss Zealot design, where they're able to charge really quickly and close the distance with their enemies in battle. It's not as powerful compared to my psionic speed ability when I had been the Queen of Blades, but it's certainly more effective compared to the ghost's psionic speed ability."

Jim shuddered at the thought. When he had been fighting the Tal'darim Protoss on Xil to get the Xel'Naga artifact fragment, he has seen with his own eyes the Zealots use their speed to great effectiveness, by charging quickly up to his Siege Tanks and then using their psionic blades to slice through their armored hulls. "I thought you said that speed is only temporary."

"It is, but we're on a volcanic planet here. One wrong step and we'd be an instant barbeque, so there's not as much room to maneuver as you think. Combine that with all the powers they have, I wouldn't be surprised if they had been sent here specifically to kill me and Nova."

Suddenly, the sounds of roaring engines knocked Sarah out of her train out thought. The two ghosts turned around to see Hellions speeding out of the cell blocks, while other prisoners have grabbed C-14 assault rifles had were heading in their direction. "Well it looks like the cavalry has arrived," Sarah mused.

"Just remember what I said. If those Hellion attacks fail, keep the rest of those prisoners safe and try to organize an attack. I'll have Warfield send down his own troops to assist, but you're still going to have to lead the way."

"Burn in hell, Dominion scumbags!" A Hellion driver shouted, as the vehicles opened up with their Infernal Flamethrowers at the New Folsom security marines. This immediately caught the attention of the gestalts, as some of them opened fire with the arm mounted miniguns, while others ignited their psionic blades and charged toward to attack.

* * *

**Xel'Naga Caverns Entrance, Aiur**

Zeratul listened to the report with a grim look on his face, as Ataldis used his Khaydarin Crystal to relay the message he had for the Dark Templar from Zamara, and allowing her to speak through it. "This is dire news indeed, Zamara. How is it that not one Protoss among the Alysaar had detected this until now?"

Zamara's voice from the crystal was calm. "Whoever had done this had a far greater understanding of how to manipulate energy signatures for their own benefit. Our Alysaar brethren are still investigating how any of this had come to pass."

"What have you discovered so far?"

"We have discovered that the Dark Archon energies of Ulrezaj have in reality been cloned energy signatures, they were not actually his to begin with. I know I had sealed the traitor within the Khaydarin Crystal, now being kept within the Alys'aril Nexus, but it would appear that during the course of year he had been imprisoned, he had found a way to escape his confines, yet leave an energy source behind to deceive us all."

"Is there a way to determine when or how he had escaped?"

"Not as of yet. The Alysaar are still uncertain of how Ulrezaj had managed to clone his very energy in the first place. He may be much more powerful compared to other Dark Archons, but until this date there has never been a successful case where a Dark Templar or Dark Archon had been able to replicate his energies in such a manner."

Zeratul clutched his fist in frustration. It was bad enough of learning the Xel'Naga prophecy on Ulaan and the threat of the hybrids. The last thing he needed now was further disunity between the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss.

However, he also suspected Ulrezaj may not be loyal to either sect. The vat creatures in the Aiur Caverns were clearly Protoss-Zerg hybrids. They appear to be Zerg dominant in terms of biological makeup, and he had seen many of them present in the Overmind's apocalyptic vision of the future. Thus although the Dark Archon had been responsible for the creation of the Tal'darim, it would appear they were merely tools and instruments to him. After the drained bodies Felanis had shown him in the Khaydarin Crystal chamber, it seemed likely that Ulrezaj has also been planning to merge the Protoss and Zerg together to form the hybrids.

Still, Zeratul could not understand why that is the case. Samir Duran was clearly a being of unknown origin, neither a regular terran nor Kerrigan's consort. Ulrezaj, however, was still a Protoss by nature, and he could not understand what could have caused him to turn against the entire Protoss race. When he had first encountered the Dark Templar, Ulrezaj's goal of exterminating the Khalai Protoss from Shakuras was at least understandable given the hatred of the Nerazim's for them. The usage of enslaving the Zerg to do such a bidding was a clear indication he had succumbed to insanity, but back then it had appeared to Zeratul that Ulrezaj was simply looking out for his own brethren.

Now, however, it would seem that Ulrezaj serves a completely new master, more than likely the Fallen One from the prophecy he had learned about prior to the Zerg invasion. This of course was understandable, as Zeratul had seen first-hand the power of its creations, when the hybrid Maar had taken control and corrupted the entire Zhakul Guardian tribe until he had freed them. It would not be impossible, therefore, for a being as powerful as Ulrezaj to succumb to the corruption as well.

"Is there a way we can determine where he is now?" Zeratul asked.

"No. Because we had detected the change in energy only after it had dissipated, it could have meant that Ulrezaj had escaped Ehlna as long as a year ago, when I had first imprisoned him within the Khaydarin Crystal. For all we know, his plans could already be in place, and ready to execute."

"We must begin the adequate preparations immediately," Ataldis urged. "The Alysaar Guardians have already been placed on maximum alert ever since we had discovered this news. This time, there will be no such surprise attack from the traitor, no matter what he has planned for us."

"We will all assist you," Vartanil said. "I was a servant of the Tal'darim myself, and it was only with the help of the Daelaam Protoss that I had broken the hold of Sundrop on me. It was Ulrezaj who had corrupted me by this very substance, and he will pay in blood for his treachery."

"Greater matters must be tended to first, young Vartanil," Mohandar explained, having arrived at the battle scene shortly before Zeratul and the other Dark Templars had emerged from the Xel'Naga Caverns with Felanis. "There are still Zerg that must be scoured from Aiur. Most of them have been eradicated across our planet, but the largest concentrations still remain. Once we have retaken our homeworld, we will immediately turn our attention at hand to Ulrezaj. If he has any relation to the prophecy on Ulaan, we must know about it immediately."

* * *

**Unknown Location**

Duran watched as the re-energizing cycle's final phase reached its end. After months upon months of effort, the being's recovery had been complete. Now it was time he continued the role in carrying out his master's plan, as he did.

"What is this place?" the being asked, emerging from energy chamber.

"You are in the presence of my master, dark one," Duran warned. "You would do well to show your respect."

"Samir Duran. I had expected you to still be at Kerrigan's side, using her to your schemes."

Duran shook his head. "The situation had changed since then. By now, we have far greater difficulties ahead of us. The terrans and Protoss both of realized her importance to jeopardizing our master's intentions for the universe. Our progress will now be hampered by this knowledge, now that they are aware she is not true threat."

"You should have killed her yourself when you were at her side! You had more than enough chances for such a strike!"

"I had expected her arrogance to bring about her own downfall," Duran said, somewhat in guilt. "As the Queen of Blades she had foolishly believed no force in the universe was mightier than her, and the unity of strength from the terrans and Protoss would have inevitably killed her in time. They would have done the work for us, but now we're forced to deal with Kerrigan ourselves."

At this point, a booming voice interrupted the two of them. "What has happened is past," the Dark Voice said. "We must focus on the matter at hand. Now Duran, you will go to the designated location I had instructed for you, and retrieve the specimen I deem fit to be used in the forging."

"Master," the being bowed down in respect.

"Rise, young one," the Dark Voice said, as Duran left. "I had known you would remain a valuable asset in my grand schemes, as I had known all along that it would be better to have more than one agent to carry out my bidding."

"What is thy will?"

"You must gather your forces in strength, to which I have also provided you. Events have transpired that have left your loyal minions in disarray, and a strong being as yourself is needed to unite them together again, and to assist in my goals."

"I will do as you ask, master."

"You have always been loyal to me. I know you will use this chance to prove to me that your abilities have not diminished since what had once happened to you. As Duran did not greet you back, I shall do so myself. Welcome back to the land of the living, Ulrezaj."


	27. Chapter 27

**Author's Note: Ok, so with this chapter I feel shouldn't go up so soon, but in the last chapter, Shadowbane509 had kind of wanted to know how did Ulrezaj return from captivity, so the beginning of this chapter will explain just that. For those of you who had read The Dark Templar Saga: Shadow Hunters and The Dark Templar Saga: Twilight, this first part of the chapter is also an attempt to connect the dots between Ulrezaj and the Tal'darim.**

**At MostazalsLord: If you do not know who Ulrezaj is, you can simply find all the info you need by going to Starcraft wiki and typing "Ulrezaj" in the search box. It'll help immensely when you read this chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 27

**Unknown Location**

"You will have a difficult task ahead of you, Ulrezaj," the Dark Voice stated. "Now that we can no longer count on the terrans and the Protoss to kill Kerrigan, an alternative must be found."

"It will not be easy," the Dark Archon admitted. "My loyal followers, the Fist of Ulrezaj, were mostly wiped out near Shakuras. What had remained had been too weak to accomplish anything except for the roles of assassination." In fact he had used them to kill the Protoss preservers, but when it came to Zamara, this resulted in failure. It was exactly the reason why he had to turn to the Khalai Protoss that still remained on Aiur, in the hopes of replenishing his ranks.

Of course, the Sundrop that he had used to corrupt them had an alternative purpose than just cutting them off from the Khala: it was also to convert the Khalai Protoss to become more like Nerazim Protoss, despite the fact the Tal'darim had despised the Dark Templar kind. This process was unfortunately long and slow, and by the time he had been imprisoned within the Khaydarin Crystal with Zamara, it was still far from complete. Nevertheless, the Tal'darim had begun to learn the Nerazim techniques without understanding its true nature, and it had suited its purpose. In time, members of the Tal'darim had begun to spread the Sundrop substance to other Protoss on other worlds, enabling them to join with the Tal'darim as well.

It had been Ulrezaj's hope that after he had completed his mission on Ehlna, he would be able to determine just how successful the new Tal'darim recruits would be. Unfortunately, Zamara's actions had prevented that, and even after his release, he had been too weak to be of any practical use and had to recuperate. Only now will he finally obtain his chance to find out the results of his actions.

"It is highly unlikely you will be able to gather your Tal'darim brethren on Aiur to follow you again," the Dark Voice said. "As we speak, the Protoss have gathered most of their strength to retake their homeworld. They know the Zerg have been greatly weakened following the events of the Queen of Blades on Char. The Tal'darim still on Aiur have been frequently encountered by the Protoss. While as you had expected their reactions were hostile, that does not have to mean they're still loyal to you."

Ulrezaj scowled in reluctance. His master was correct after all. When he first formed the Tal'darim by splitting up the Protoss survivors from the Shel'na Kryhas tribe, he knew he would have to reveal himself to at least one Khalai Protoss. To this he had chosen Felanis, but had subjected him to a massive overdose of Sundrop so that his corruption would be so deep that even when he knew of Ulrezaj's true nature, he would remain loyal to him. This had succeeded, and with it he had forged a special group of Tal'darim called the Xava'kai.

Unfortunately, he had not counted on the continued meddling of the Shel'na Kryhas. Their leader, a fierce Protoss warrior named Ladranix, had taken and defeated one of his most loyal Tal'darim followers: Alzadar. Somehow he and the other Shel'na Kryhas Protoss had severed the hold Ulrezaj had over him via Sundrop. With that, Alzadar had turned against him, and had tried to turn the other Tal'darim against Felanis and himself. Although Ulrezaj took pleasure in killing Ladranix on Aiur one year ago, as well as the knowledge that Alzadar had also been killed, the fact remained that his influence had its effects. There was now no evidence that the Tal'darim would greet him as their Xava'tor anymore.

He hoped that Felanis was still alive on Aiur, as there was no proof of his death, but even in his case there was no proof he'd still be loyal to him. While the Sundrop substance had corrupted the Tal'darim leader, it did not change the fact that Ulrezaj was the primary supplier of the drug, and since he had only just recovered, it meant Felanis had not been exposed to it for almost a whole year. Thus it was entirely possible its effect had disappeared from him, and he had reestablished the link with the Khala. The same could be true of the Tal'darim on other worlds, and if that was the case, that would leave him without a powerful warband at all.

The Dark Voice noticed the energy being's silence and understood what he was thinking. "I have taken steps in ensure the Tal'darim retain the measure of control you had expected of them. One of my greatest hybrid creations is already there, commanding a group of such Protoss. He is under my specific orders to relinquish that command to you when the time is right."

"They will see me as a Dark Archon, master," Ulrezaj protested. "They are likely to despise me and react with animosity."

"That will not happen, my servant. For during the time period that you have reenergized, I had taken the liberty of bestowing an illusionary effect spell on you, specifically for the Tal'darim. Although this will have no effect on the other Protoss, the Tal'darim will see you as a Khalai Archon, and not a Dark Archon. This will hold true for the Tal'darim Protoss on Aiur, as well as on other worlds. As you had stated that the Tal'darim despise the Nerazim Protoss, the illusion spell will allow them to be loyal to you immediately."

"What is the status of the Tal'darim on Aiur now, master?"

"Most have either met death or capture as their fates. The Protoss are working hard to undo the influence you had done to them in the past in the case of the latter, while most of the remaining Tal'darim that still remain are under the command of my hybrid, dealing with the unexpected presence of a terran warband on Aiur. As such, you must build your warband using the Tal'darim from other worlds. They too have been weakened from combat, but they are still stronger in comparison to those on Aiur."

"You speak of the terran James Raynor that had defeated them," Ulrezaj said. "I had known of him when I first encountered Zeratul on Aiur a few years after its fall. The Nerazim had spoken highly of him."

"He is not to be underestimated, dark one. It was he who had defeated Kerrigan on Char, despite the vast Zerg forces at her disposal. Thus it should come as no surprise to you of his victories against the Tal'darim on other worlds, and why you must go travel to many of them and rally them together."

"I will unite the scattered Tal'darim," the Dark Archon said with resolve. "And I will see to it that James Raynor suffers his punishment for his actions."

"Do not fail me, young one," the Dark Voice warned. "It was precisely due to your potential that I had rescued you from the Alys'aril Nexus on Ehlna. Your sustained energies made it simple to replicate and deceive the Alysaar, but the deception was never meant to be held indefinitely. By now, they have surely known of your escape."

"Why did you allow Zamara to live, master? She is a Protoss preserver, and will remain a threat to me as long as she is alive."

"You are a capable warrior. You know as well as I do that during the battle on Ehlna, had Zamara not used her strength to channel the Alys'aril Nexus and combine them with her own, you would have broken into the sanctuary and dealt with her yourself. During the battle on Aiur where you had attempted to capture Zamara, you had fought a variety of opponents by yourself, including the Zerg, the terrans, and the Tal'darim that had been turned against you. Even against such a force, you were able to survive the battle, though not unscathed. Thus you need not my assistance for dealing with your adversaries. I certainly could have dealt with Zamara myself, but by allowing her to live, it also presents the opportunity for you to prove that you still have what is necessary to be considered worthy as one of my agents."

"I am still every bit the warrior you once knew me as," Ulrezaj said fiercely. "I will bring swift death to all of your enemies."

"Then begin gathering the Tal'darim on the other worlds. Once you have gathered your mighty warband, I will give further instructions to you."

* * *

**Bridge, Shield of Aiur**

"It is as we had feared then," Artanis said thoughtfully as Zeratul reported the news to him. "Our new adversary has found a way to infiltrate our very ranks, and turned our very kind to do its bidding."

"In the case with Ulrezaj it was a simple task to complete," the Nerazim replied. "His hatred for the Khalai Protoss had been immense long before he had become a Dark Archon. We had seen first-hand at what he was capable of, even enslaving the Zerg to kill the Khalai people."

"I never imagined he would turn against the entire Protoss race though. He is now a threat to all living things, just as this Fallen One is."

"Swift justice will be carried out against him," Selendis declared. "But that justice must wait for the time being. We must complete our current task at hand, and cleanse the Zerg from the rest of Aiur once and for all. The assault on Antioch has already begun."

Artanis turned to the battlefield screen again, looking on as the 250 million Zerg defenders fought grimly to hold on to every inch of the city as they possibly could. Vartanil was leading the Zealots on the ground against the outer defensive barrier, but the presence of Zerg creep somewhat compensated for the speed enhancements of the Zealot warriors. Urun had his hands busy with other matters, as the continued Zerg attacks in the form of Mutalisks and Corruptors prevented his Phoenix fleet from assisting with the Protoss on the ground. This had allowed more and more Zerg Queens to get into position against the ground forces, and reports were flooding in that these creatures were taking a heavy toll on the Zealots and Stalkers.

Mohandar had been dispatched to eliminate the Zerg air support, assisted by some of Selendis's Carriers, but the Zerg Spires and Greater Spires had thousands of Scourges defending it. As the Void Rays' prismatic beams were ineffective against lightly armored targets, the Carriers became easy prey to the Zerg flyers.

The Hierarch had seen enough. He opened a channel to all of the Mothership commanders. "My brethren, it is time. The Exussumers that have been deployed on the outskirts of Antioch will now play their role in the struggle ahead. The casualties we have sustained have been catastrophic, and we cannot hope to defeat the Zerg in a battle of numbers. We must prevail here with most of our warriors still in fighting condition, for our most difficult task is yet to come: expelling the Zerg from the site of the Overmind."

"As you command, Hierarch. The Exussumers will move into position for battle now."

* * *

**New Folsom**

"Concentrate fire on the Dominion infantry!" Nova shouted. "Sarah and I will deal with the gestalts!"

The prisoners' attack using the Hellions had turned out to be a disaster. For all their boasting, it was all hollow. The attack did not succeed in killing even a single one of the hybrids, though almost all of the Hellions were destroyed in the assault. Only two gestalts were injured, both of them no longer in fighting condition, but this was not worth the loss of 27 prisoners killed and the same number of Hellions now a smoking ruin.

By now, Warfield's troops had joined up with the two ghosts, and heavier firepower was at their disposal. While the cell blocks Sarah had liberated were near military vehicles, they were all in the forms of Hellions and Vultures. The Vikings in the compound was of little use, as all of the prisoners either knew how to operate its aerial mode or its ground assault mode. None of them knew how to pilot both modes simultaneously.

Deeper into the prison complex, there were the heavier military vehicles present in the forms of Thors, Siege Tanks, Goliaths, and Diamondbacks, but as yet those were inaccessible as the New Folsom security had gathered their strength and were positioning as many men as they could to deny them their access.

Fortunately, the prisoners had not allowed their hatred to blind them for their reason. When the initial assault on the gestalts had failed with such disastrous results, they had listened to Sarah to regroup further back. With her help, the Dominion pursuers were quickly neutralized, but unfortunately the gestalt units remained behind, and Nova knew this was something only she and Kerrigan could do, and they must do this alone.

Channeling her psionic powers, the blond ghost telekinetically hurled a firebat back into the infantry. Seconds later, his fuel tank exploded, and almost a dozen marines were running out, screaming from the pain of being burned alive.

From a higher elevation, Sarah unleashed a psionic storm against the Siege Tanks deploying into artillery position to shell the prisoners, before unloading from her C-20 Canister Rifle. The effect had killed many of the reapers utilizing their jetpacks to rapidly advance towards her, but the marauders further behind opened up with their punisher grenade launchers, forcing her to dive for cover.

"Someone deal with those damn Marauders!" Sarah shouted.

Warfield's marines advanced forward to comply, but many were cut down from the sounds of sniper rifles. Nova scowled in frustration as the ghosts she had personally trained at New Folsom had used their skills exactly the way she had taught them. Fortunately, they were still using the older model C-10 Canister Rifles, and those gave off greater flashes upon firing, giving away their positions.

Clutching an EMP grenade in her hand, Nova threw it in their direction. Almost immediately, the shockwave illuminated the Dominion ghosts as their cloaking ability was temporarily cancelled out. They never got a chance to recloak though, as all of them fell on the ground, their brains gone by Sarah's mind blast attack.

"The ghosts are gone! Bring out the big guns!" Sarah shouted. Within seconds, the area shook with the fury of artillery fire as Siege Tanks opened up. Marauder after Marauder were blown apart, as the New Folsom security defenders continued to weaken.

However, this promoted the deployment of the gestalts, as Sarah saw them utilize their psionic speed ability, charging out into the open to neutralize their artillery support. She quickly opened a communications channel to Warfield via her comm-link.

"Keep the artillery fire going with those tanks, general. Just keep your infantry out of blast zone. Nova and I will handle the gestalts ourselves."

"You could get killed by friendly fire though."

"It's a risk we're just going to have to take."

Without another word Sarah jumped down from the high grounds, and opened fire on the gestalts with Nova. Their bullets did little damage, however, as the gestalts had parts of Protoss power suits that protected them from harm. On the other hand, both ghosts were forced to dive for cover behind the numerous wrecked vehicles that littered the battlefield as the Terran-Protoss hybrids opened up with their arm mounted miniguns.

Nova gathered her strength and unleashed a psionic shock attack at one such gestalt, but to her surprise the hybrid did not topple over and go unconscious as she thought would happen. Instead, all it did was anger him, as he ignited a psionic blade on his right arm and charged in at Nova.

Suddenly, the gestalt stopped, and was lifted up into the air. Nova turned to see Sarah channeling her telekinesis powers, and hurled him into the scorching magma below. "Remember Nova, these are not normal ghosts we're dealing with here."

Nova nodded, as three more gestalts opened fire on them. Bolting away, she unleashed pure inertia towards them. It wasn't able to hurl them back as she had hoped for, but it did get them to stumble slightly. Seeing this opportunity, she focused her energy on their miniguns, jamming it. As the gestalts tried to unjam it, not realizing how their weapons stopped working in the first place, Sarah threw an EMP grenade of her own at them, before bolting away to get out of the blast radius. The explosion temporarily disrupted their power suits, and both ghosts opened fire with their grenade launchers.

Suddenly, Nova was hurled back, as another gestalt unleashed an inertia blast of his own, slamming the blond ghost into the wreckage of a Siege Tank. Thinking quickly, Sarah telekinetically lifted up a Goliath husk and threw it at the gestalt, but to her shock, the gestalt ignited his psionic blade and sliced the entire husk in half before it could make contact. As it was about to open fire however, the gestalt was suddenly forced back by a huge explosion from an artillery shell. Sarah turned to see the Siege Tanks had complied with her request, still providing the support she and Nova needed to channel the gestalts into killing zones.

However, her eyes widened as she saw what was being brought in to counter this. From the distance Kerrigan saw Dominion Thors slowly moving into firing position. As there was little room for maneuverability, it was likely the Thors would simply be used as mobile artillery batteries, but a single barrage from one of them was more than enough to blow a Siege Tank to pieces.

"Jim, we're going to need Banshee support soon!" Nova requested into her radio. "Those Thors take out our siege tanks and they'll just trample over us!"

"You know I always have a trump card on me," came the reply.

As the Dominion Thors advanced forward to get in range, Banshees came flying out of the sky, their backlash rocket pods blazing. But to the Thors' surprise, none of them unloaded their payload on them. Instead, they had unloaded the rockets right ahead of the mechanical walkers, blowing up a vital support bridge suspended over the molten lava. As this was the only bridge in the vicinity strong enough to support the Thors' massive weight, its collapse meant the behemoths were now stuck on the other side, unable to get within firing range.

Other Banshees carried incendiary type rockets, and those fell by the hundreds on the New Folsom security soldiers' positions. Marines, marauders, and reapers were left screaming as they were burned by the napalm, while other infantry were simply burned to ashes. Goliaths did their best with their hellfire missiles to knock them out of the sky, but the white phosphorus and thermite rockets unleashed by the Banshees had burned through most of their armor. Those lucky enough to survive were desperately retreating to avoid the flames, and this deprived the Vikings, Siege Tanks, and the remaining infantry on the ground of their anti-air support.

The results on the gestalts, however, fell way short of expectations. Many of them simply used their pryokinesis abilities to channel the flames and send them right back up towards the Banshees. However with so much fire around them, it proved impossible to channel it all, and many of them were instead forced to use their psionic powers to create invisible energy barriers to prevent being burned alive.

"They're distracted!" Sarah shouted. "Unload on them with everything you've got!"

The Siege Tanks complied, opening fire with their shock cannons, as Warfield's marines added to the fire with their C-14 gauss rifles. For many of the gestalts, the combination of incendiary fire, artillery shells, and infantry gunfire proved too much, and they finally began to succumb to the firepower unleashed against them.

With almost a third of the gestalts killed, the remaining ones saw that the battle conditions no longer favored them and began to fall back. With their strongest support retreating, this was the sign to the New Folsom infantrymen to withdraw as well, and most of them threw down their weapons and fled, scurrying in disarray across the lighter bridges that had been spared by the Banshees.

"They're just falling back to another defense position," Nova stated. "We've got to get to them before they have a chance to regroup!"

"Keep the liberated prisoners in the rear as they too vulnerable in this state," Jim's voice came from over the radio. "I'll send more Raiders and Warfield's boys down to assist you. Mengsk said the New Folsom prison has impenetrable defenses, and no one has ever cracked them before. Today, those Dominion security boys are going to learn just how wrong their emperor was."

* * *

**Author's Note: All right, so for those of you who are wondering why I had given a very slight humbleness to the Dark Voice, I wanted to show the entity is not an arrogant moron who discounts possibilities because he feels it's simply beyond possibility, which in contrast is an even bigger insult to Mengsk, who's arrogance seems to know no bounds.**

**And that is why in this chapter with regards to the Dark Voice, even _he_ is willing to acknowledge James Raynor's potential due to his victory over Kerrigan on Char.**

**As always, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Author's Note: Ok everyone, at the end of this chapter, there will be something few people would have anticipated because they would judge it to be of no importance. Me, I decided otherwise and will have uses for it later.**

**All I will say about that part is this: for those of you who have played "Whispers of Doom", I suggest you go back and watch the prophecy cinematic _very_ carefully, and you'll see what I'm getting at.  
**

**At MostazalsLord: Your congratulations on Nova and Sarah beating the gestalts were somewhat premature. The battle on New Folsom isn't over yet, and this chapter will continue that battle.**

**Please read and review!**

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Chapter 28

**Temple Ruins, Aiur**

The battlefield erupted with fire as the Siege Tanks shelled the open field before them. General Ridgeway watched as the Zealots scattered to avoid the explosion, and then came under heavy fire from the Goliaths' autocannons.

Nevertheless, he knew these attacks can do little more than delay the inevitable. Casualties have been around the expected levels so far for defending the temple ruins, but there was no way to stop the steady flow in Protoss reinforcements from pouring in. The Vikings all had to be converted to the ground role to fill in the serious shortage of infantry, as too many of them were now back at the casualty clearing stations and being treated by medics. With the Banshees unable to fire at aerial opponents, this left only the Wraiths to defend against the Dropships, sent down by the BattleCruisers to reinforce their defensive position.

As such, the Wraiths were constantly forced to escort the Dropships to prevent them from being shot down by Protoss flyers, leaving no air units at all to deal with the Protoss transports warping their warriors on the battle scene. Ridgeway knew that in equal numbers, the Protoss would prevail as individually they were stronger than the average terran soldier, and as a result overwhelming numbers is required to conduct successful attacks.

However, right now the Dominion soldiers defending the ruins and the Protoss warriors attacking them are relatively equal in numbers. To make things worse, manpower and ammunition were both being expended faster than the Dropships could resupply them with. The steady rate of attrition was rapidly making the current situation more and more untenable. The general told his soldiers there are some things that they just have to have faith in, but fewer and fewer people saw a positive outcome to this anymore. While the attacks have not increased in intensity, the Protoss have shown no sign of letting up their efforts.

The logistics officers at the Command Center have made urgent requests for heavier reinforcements, but when it came to dealing with the Protoss Colossi war machines, only the Thor was able to hold its own ground. This was made even more difficult by the way in which they were sent to the battlefield. With no disruptions to their Warp Prisms, they could simply warp the Colossi to the area, bypassing the transporting phase altogether. On the other hand, most of the special Dropships strong enough to transport the Thors did not have heavy armor, and they came under frequent attack from Protoss Scouts. Rather than risk the precious Dropships this way, the transport officers on the BattleCruisers instead turned to sending the Thors onto Hercules Dropships, as they had much thicker armor and therefore had a better chance to survive air attacks. However the heavy armor came at the cost of speed and agility, and the Hercules ships were slow and lumbering compared to the standard Dropships. This gave the Protoss flyers more chances to shoot them out of the sky, and since Thors were the most difficult ground units to replenish, the Wraith fighters had to focus their main efforts on protecting the Hercules Dropships whenever they were sent down to the planet's surface with reinforcements.

The picture was getting progressively darker and darker for them. Ridgeway may not be an expert on the Protoss, but he knew they were very fanatical warriors. Although they did not possess the rapid healing rate the Zerg did, their rate of recovery from injuries were nevertheless quicker in comparison to terrans. As the old terran myths have indicated in such a scenario, that was what makes the opponent a fiercer warrior in combat, and now it could be recognized in full reality on the battlefield of Aiur.

To compound matters, it seemed as if the Protoss have no understanding of fear in the midst of combat. As far as they were concerned, war and combat was considered glorious, even if they were fully aware it would lead to their deaths. Ridgeway knew some of his boys were tough, but he also knew that even they had breaking points. If the going got too tough, that point would inevitably be reached. In the event of death, the general was well aware there were soldiers that would act heroically, and those that would act as cowards.

Although life must surely be precious to the Protoss as well, it would seem to Ridgeway that they were far more willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, even if they knew their deaths would accomplish absolutely nothing. On the other hand, he had seen cases during his early military days were even the strongest willed soldier had been reduced to cowards as the horrors of battle had simply proved too much for him to bear. With the Protoss, they did not mind death one bit, and rather had looked forward to the afterlife, and that gave them an advantage which Ridgeway knew the terrans could never counter. As he had learned in numerous battles during his military years, the willingness to die for the greater cause was a powerful advantage in its own right.

Of course, courage and valor alone aren't enough to win battles, but the Protoss weren't blind to that. Their technology in most ways were superior to that of the terrans, and with them being hard pressed to replace their losses, Ridgeway knew how the battle would most likely end.

Those thoughts were interrupted, however, as an enormous explosion shook the battlefield. The general looked up to see one of the towering Colossi crash down onto the ground, crushing Stalkers and Immortals in the process.

"Have the Thors focus their artillery barrages on the Colossi!" Ridgeway ordered, as he continued to fire rounds from his gauss rifle against the attacking Zealots.

"Eat hot lead!" The Thor pilots shouted, as their mechanical walkers opened up with their 250mm strike cannons. The ground shook with the fury of war, as some of the Colossi staggered backwards from the blows.

But to Ridgeway's shock, some of the Colossi simply vanished in a puff of bright smoke. The same was happening to many of the Zealots, Stalkers, and Immortals as they were struck by terran gunfire.

The general squinted to look harder at the scene, before scowling in anger. The Protoss were deploying their robotic Sentries to the scene. Although smaller than the Zealot, these drones were very deadly, as they were producing hallucination copies of the Protoss units on the ground. Now the terrans had to deal with the Protoss toying with their heads, and determine which units were real, and which were hallucinations.

Under normal circumstances, this was not much of a problem as the sheer amount of firepower at their disposal made it unnecessary to identify the real units from the fake ones. Here however, ammunition was a critical factor, and must not be expended needlessly. The real Colossi were already taking advantage of the hallucinations their Sentries had produced for them, using the time to get within firing distance and opening up with their thermal lances on the Thors.

"We need the Ravens sent here immediately!" Ridgeway ordered.

"They'll be deployed from the BattleCruisers right away, general. Just hold on," came the reply.

The general then opened his communications link with the engineering corps. "It's been almost 3 hours already! What is the status of the excavation?"

"We're more than two thirds of the way done, sir. The orders were to excavate as many of these as we can from the ruins, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

"Well how much more time are you going to need? My boys are getting slaughtered out here! They're not going to be able to hold on much longer! If we don't get off the planet soon, we're not going to be leaving at all!"

"We're going as fast as we can, general. Give up about one more hour and we should be able to get all that we need."

Ridgeway turned to his marines, almost all of them near a state of collapse from sheer exhaustion. "All right everyone, I know we've all been through hell already, killed far more Protoss than we had expected from their unwelcoming reception. The engineers need just a little bit more time to get what they need. Once they get it, we'll all be on board Dropships for some well-deserved R and R, so let's all be alive to see that moment."

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**Dominion Base, Bel'Shir**

Ridgeway, however, still had it somewhat better compared to General Madison on the moon of Bel'Shir. Here, the Dominion general found out quickly that stealing the terrazine from under the Protoss was all but impossible. Although the amount of the terrazine present on the moon was far greater in comparison to what was discovered on Mar Sara, it didn't change the fact that the Protoss were the first to discover it. As such, they had set up shrines at every possible location where there were large concentrations of terrazine.

Madison had hoped to acquire the substances from the minor locations, but unfortunately there simply weren't enough to meet Mengsk's demand in the operation. Yet trying to negotiate with the Protoss proved futile. The Tal'darim, as they liked to be called, simply attacked their miners and engineers on sight, accusing them of trying to steal their "Breath of Creation" just as Raynor did.

The general cursed Raynor for his actions here on Bel'Shir. Thanks to the rebel commander's actions, the Protoss had the impression that all terrans are thieves, out to steal anything that is considered holy and sacred to them. To make matters worse, the orbital scans had indicated the whole of Bel'Shir was full of ancient shrines and holy temple ruins. This suggests that the moon was some sort of cathedral or other religious sanctuary to the Protoss. As a result, it also meant that there was no part of Bel'Shir his men could land on that wouldn't be considered violating sacred grounds, which would already be enough to anger the Protoss present. Factor in the venturing out to some of their most holy altars and stealing from them, Madison could easily see why it sent the Protoss into a rage so quickly.

Unlike at Redstone III, he knew this mining operation would be much harder in comparison. The jorium was relatively simple to obtain, as the substance was hidden within the mineral crystals. To an extent the same could be argued about the terrazine, but there was no way to build a refinery over it without destroying the Protoss altars, and that couldn't happen with the Tal'darim watching. Rather, their miners would have to go to the altars and personally extract the terrazine from it, but this was no easy task as all the altars were deep in Protoss territory.

Most of his boys were already deeply frustrated by the fact that they were venturing out there practically to get themselves killed, and they don't even know for what cause, and to that extent Madison could understand them. He did not want to waste the lives of his soldiers over this, but like them, Madison also began to wonder just what Mengsk had planned. Mengsk may have told him on Redstone III that it had something to do with Project Shadow Blade, but nothing more specific than that. Madison had been left out of the loop when it came to such a project, so he knew nothing of the details. Still, if the Dominion emperor ordered him on another resource retrieval mission that involved dealing with Zerg and Protoss, which in turn would spell death for more of his boys, he would demand answers about what Mengsk truly had in mind.

Right now, however, the battle was the important matter at hand, and the situation had been unfavorable to his Dominion forces since they had touched down on Bel'Shir. For starters, despite the additional substances it had, terrazine still had the same basic properties as vespene. This meant the gas was highly explosive, and although this would have been great to lure the Protoss near it and then set it off, Madison knew that wasn't an option. If an altar was destroyed, it would cut off its terrazine collecting ability, which had been reported by the engineering corps was superior compared to the terran refineries. Thus it became vital that the altars must receive as little damage as possible, and this in turn ruled out the possibility of BattleCruiser fire support at all, as their yamato cannon and plasma torpedo attacks would inevitably hit the altars in their attempts to neutralize the Protoss.

To make matters worse, scans had indicated that the Tal'darim in this area had access to large numbers of ships called Void Rays. According to other Dominion reports, these ships had some sort of laser that increases its damage output with time, making in the perfect weapon to destroy heavily armored targets. As almost a third of the reinforcements Mengsk had provided him were Thors, Madison had hoped to use these mechanical walkers to hold off the Protoss during the terrazine extraction, but this was not possible in the presence of so many Void Rays.

On the ground, the situation was more promising. The mercenary market was still hot, and many of the marine reinforcements came in the form of War Pigs. Although mercenaries, Madison knew these marines had more combat experience compared to those in the Dominion, since they were mostly homicidal convicts at some point. He now planned to use these War Pigs to deal with the Void Rays, as they were ineffective against lightly armored targets. The Goliaths would protect the War Pigs from any ground assault units, since they were much harder to replace.

But it was the threat of the Colossi that most worried the Dominion general. Their thermal lances were indeed a force to be reckoned with, capable of burning even the strongest infantrymen to ashes within seconds and roasting ground pilots alive in their vehicles. Thankfully the golden machines were so tall that they could be targeted by the Vikings, and the Colossi had no defense against air attacks. However despite the heavy beating these Tal'darim Protoss may have taken during Raynor's visit here, their air power was still substantial, and Madison's forces were insufficient in both manpower and material for a prolonged battle of attrition.

Thus the only way left to weaken the Protoss forces and dwindle their numbers down to acceptable levels required the usage of tactical nuclear warheads on their base. However the orbital scans had indicated that there were only two giant stone ramps that gave entrance to the base by foot, and while there were no Photon Cannons near them to detect cloaked ghosts, the number of Protoss warriors were substantial. Only the most skilled Dominion ghosts would be able to sneak their way in and deliver a successful strike, and it was in times like these that the services of Nova Terra were most needed. Unfortunately, she had turned against the Dominion and was now part of Raynor's Raiders.

Madison sighed at the thought, knowing her skills would be just what he needed to make the mining mission a success with the least amount of casualties. The ghosts he had at his disposal were far less capable, although in theory they would be able to make the successful nuclear strike on the Tal'darim base as well. For that reason, the general had kept them away from the frontlines and the midst of combat so that if push came to shove, they were all to be ready for such an emergency measure.

"General, the Protoss will be attacking our defense line again soon," a War Pig's voice announced from over the radio.

"Be sure to conserve your ammo, go for one shot one kill if possible," Madison advised. "Right now they're just probing us, trying to see what defenses we've got. When they launch their full scale attack, we'll need all the firepower we still have to give them hell."

* * *

**New Folsom**

A Firebat exploded in an enormous fireball, his gasoline tank struck by one of Sarah's well placed shots. To her flank, Nova channeled her psionic energy to telekinetically blast three Marauders back, before unloading with her C-20 Canister Rifle. Although many of the infantrymen were killed in their withdrawal, enough reached the safety of the sandbagged firing positions at the defensive line. The troops from Jim and Warfield had managed to liberate several more military cell blocks, but while there were heavier vehicles such as Siege Tanks and Diamondbacks for them to access, there was currently no hope of them using it to assist in the raid. The Dominion Thors had positioned themselves within artillery barrage position of the vehicle compound, and any movement there meant certain death for the prisoners in commandeering the vehicles.

"Jim, keep your men firing on the gestalts! Hold them back!" Sarah shouted into her radio. "Nova and I will deal with the Thors!"

Channeling her psionic speed energy, Sarah broke into a sprint towards one of the mechanical walkers. The pilot saw the threat approaching and opened up with the 250mm cannons, but it was exactly what Kerrigan had wanted. She focused her energy and formed a psionic barrier, stopping the shells in mid-flight. Taking the hint, Nova immediately used her telekinetic skills and hurled one of the shells back at the Thor, causing it to stumble back slightly. The lull gave the blond ghost the time to hurl more of the shells back, as Sarah let loose a psionic storm. The raw energy released wreaked havoc on the walker, and while not blown apart like the smaller vehicles, it was still more than enough to cause it to collapse to the ground, unable to get up ever again.

Sarah had no time for celebrations, as she was forced to sprint quickly away from the incoming flames of a Hellion, having been lucky enough to avoid the storm. However Nova was by her side, and she used her pyrokinesis ability to channel the flame away from Sarah, and turn it towards some of the Vultures at the frontline, laying down their Spider Mines to prevent the Raiders from moving forward. The intense heat from the flames cause some of the mines to detonate, and within seconds, the whole of the New Folsom securities position shook with explosions.

However, once again this did not succeed in dealing with the gestalts, as their psionic powers shielded them from the explosions. As soon as they died down, the hybrids again opened up with their Gatling guns, as Marines, Reapers, and Marauders were torn apart by them. Some of the Marines were already starting to fall back slightly, realizing they just weren't ready to deal with these new soldiers.

"Retreating is not an option! Push forward marines!" A voice shouted. Sarah turned around to see Lieutenant Franklin a few feet away, rallying the Marines to his position, while providing fire support from his C-14 Gauss Rifle. The red haired ghost smiled. He had indeed changed his views about her after what had happened on Agria.

"Sarah, we've got more Thors incoming!" Nova shouted. One of them had already gotten into position, ready to open fire with its 250mm cannons for an artillery barrage.

Sarah's eyes widened at the position it was about to fire on. Without given him any indication, she telekinetically lifted Franklin into the air and pulled him towards her position, behind the wreckage of a burnt out Siege Tank. Seconds later, artillery shells plastered where Franklin once stood, turning the position into nothing but a smoking crater.

"That's twice you've saved me now," the lieutenant commented, as the Thor began firing at their hiding position with its Thor Hammer Cannons.

"Don't mention it," Sarah replied. "Now, we've got to get the Thors out of here. They're too heavily armored for Banshee strikes like earlier, so we'll have to put them down the hard way."

"Can you throw them into the lava?" Franklin asked.

"Not with multiple ones in the area. I'd be a sitting duck for the other Thors. The one guarding the access to Siege Tanks has already been taken out, so we just need to deal with the one guarding the Diamondback access. Once we do that, the prisoners can swamp the remaining ones with captured vehicles."

"What about those hybrids?"

"Nova and I will deal with them ourselves. Look, I'll go into that Thor's line of fire and create a distraction, and try to lead it towards the one guarding the Diamondback access one. The second they're no longer focused on you, get your marauders to fire every explosive round they've got at it. Nova and your marines will provide fire support for the gestalts to keep them busy."

Franklin nodded, and without another word Sarah bolted away from their hiding position. As expected, the Thor immediately saw her as the main threat, and began firing its cannons at her.

"Bring all the Siege Tanks into position!" Nova shouted, firing her rifle at the gestalts. "Take down that Thor!"

As Sarah ran, she heard the sounds of artillery fire. Turning her head for a split second, she saw the massive walker stumble about a little from the Siege Tank attacks. The Marauders had complied as she asked, firing their punisher grenades without pause at it. Further away, the Goliaths added their fire with their autocannons. With so many targets firing at it, the Thor inevitably succumbed to its firepower.

Franklin ducked for cover as bullets whistled past him. The gestalts were simply not letting up their fire. Of course, thanks to the Siege Tank support, none of his boys would have to face those monstrosities in melee combat, something he would not look forward to.

Nova sprinted to his side, firing from her attached grenade launcher. "Your boys have the newer heavy gauss rifles right?" Off his nod, she gestured to them. "Then get them to use their attached grenade launchers on the hybrids. They must not be allowed to turn their attention to Sarah."

For Kerrigan, the Thor guarding the access to the Diamondbacks proved to be somewhat smarter than the previous ones. The pilot saw right away the dangers of using an artillery barrage on her, so instead he used only the Thor Hammer Cannons. This had forced Sarah to run from cover to cover, and frequently as they were blown apart. However, she knew that as she got within range, she would be able to turn the tables.

The pilot's eyes widened as he felt the entire fighting mech move against its will. He glanced down from the cockpit, only to find that Sarah had focused her psionic energy to such an extent that the pure inertia she was releasing was overwhelming. It was so strong that she was telekinetically pushing the Thor backwards. As the Thor was not meant for point blank range combat, none of its weapons could hit the ghost when she is standing right next to it. He desperately tried to move the Thor away, but Sarah's grip on it was fiercer than he had anticipated. Moving forward along with the Thor, Sarah continued to channel her psionic powers to push it back until finally, there was no more ground left under it, and it fell into the lava depths.

"I can see why all these monsters are focusing their fire on you," Franklin commented, as Sarah joined him and Nova. "Being able to take on a Thor by yourself and walk away without even a scratch? That shouldn't be possible no matter how capable the individual is."

"They'll be time for congratulating later," Sarah replied, before speaking into her radio. "Jim, we've got more prisoners liberated. As I speak they're commandeering the Siege Tanks and Diamondbacks."

"Then all that's left is the Thor compound," Jim's voice came over the radio. "We take that, the main compound will fall. How is the situation with the gestalts?"

"They're not giving up. We could force them back now that we've got heavier firepower, but they'll still be able to take a terrible toll before then. If you can force the Dominion security away from them, Nova and I will deal with the gestalts ourselves."

"I'll send down some War Pig reinforcements for that then. For now, have the Raiders and Warfield's men push towards the Thor holding complex."

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**Xel'Naga Shrines, Ulaan**

"Master, I have found it," Duran said, communicating with the Dark Voice in the telepathic state. "The Void energy signature from Zeratul made it very easy."

"What is its condition?"

"Surprisingly, still well preserved, despite no one has been around it for a while."

"Bring it back to your testing area," the Dark Voice ordered. "We may yet find usage for it in the future."

"As you wish, master," Duran answered. He then looked down very thing that could be used in his experimentation: the severed left wing of the Queen of Blades.


	29. Chapter 29

**Author's Note: Hey everyone! Sorry about the wait and everything, but school, employment searching, and family all take a higher priority compared to the fic. I hope you can understand that.**

**With the way things are going now, I don't know how long it'll be before the situation on my end improves, but it certainly won't be happening in the short run.**

**I'll do my best to post sooner, but I can make no guarantees of that.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please read and review!**

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Chapter 29

**Scion Province, Aiur**

Artanis stood from his position at the Twilight Council building, having departed his Command Mothership, the Shield of Aiur. The Zerg presence in Scion had been all but eradicated, and there was no longer any threat of them appearing out of nowhere within the city. Although the province was in ruins due to the Zerg infestation, there were still a few buildings relatively intact after Selendis had purged the veil creatures from it, this one being among them.

Zeratul was here with him, accompanied by his fellow Nerazim brethren, while the Hierarch had his own Daelaam Protoss Zealots by his side. With Selendis and the other high ranking Protoss away in assaulting the Zerg at Antioch, most of the other Protoss elsewhere on Aiur are stretched thin, but this was not a danger to any of them as virtually all of the Zerg scattered across Aiur had been eradicated.

Nevertheless, Zeratul had insisted that one important matter had to be addressed before the two of them turned their attention to Antioch with their fellow brethren. Shortly after he had emerged from the ancient Xel'Naga Caverns beneath Aiur's surface, he had brought with him 6 monstrosities that Artanis had only seen once before: the apocalyptic vision of the future from the Overmind. The Nerazim himself had encountered a similar beast at Zhakul, and while he had succeeded in slaying it, it nevertheless had taken its casualties on the Protoss there. Artanis had been initially confused as why Zeratul had allowed these vat contained hybrids to live instead of killing them on sight, but had been eventually convinced there even with the strength of both Zerg and Protoss, the hybrids were far from perfect. It was thus necessary to keep them alive for the moment so their weaknesses could be found.

As such, the 6 vat creatures were currently being transported to the Motherships where they would be Mass Recalled to Shakuras. Although there was the dangers of them taking control of individual Protoss as had happened on Zhakul, Zeratul saw that as long as they were inside the vat chambers, they will remain dormant. Nevertheless, Artanis's intention was to have them sent to the most isolated area of Shakuras to ensure they cannot do such harm.

However, Zeratul had emerged from the chambers with more than just the hybrid specimens. Another Protoss Templar had followed him out: Felanis, the leader of the Tal'darim on Aiur. Zeratul had told the Hierarch about how the Tal'darim had fractured into two different factions when the truth about their Xava'tor was in reality the Dark Archon Ulrezaj. However, Felanis was the leader of the Tal'darim that had remained loyal to him. The Templar had claimed that Ulrezaj had corrupted him more so than others using the Sundrop substance, but that the giant Khaydarin Crystal at the heart of the Xel'Naga sanctuary had restored him.

This Artanis had found difficult to believe, as no matter which faction the Tal'darim had belong to, thus far none of them had reacted to the presence of the Daelaam Protoss in a non-hostile manner. Vartanil had been part of the Tal'darim himself, although on the faction that had opposed Ulrezaj. Even after he had escaped to Shakuras with the terran Rosemary Dahl, he was unable to break the effect of the Sundrop immediately. It took the assistance of the Protoss on Shakuras to make that happen, and although Vartanil had regained his link to the Khala and fought by his Protoss brethren once again, the fact remained that cutting off the source of Sundrop to the Tal'darim alone was not enough fully undo their corruption and turn their loyalties to the Daelaam Protoss.

As such, Artanis had deep doubts in the case with Felanis. Although he did not show hostility to Zeratul upon their encounter in the caverns, the young Protoss knew that while Sundrop corrupted the minds of Khalai Protoss, it did not affect their intelligence to that extent. It was indeed possible that due to being outnumbered, as well as his own wounds, Felanis knew he could not prevail in combat.

Still, he had shown Zeratul the bodies of other Tal'darim Protoss as well as Zerg corpses in the Khaydarin Crystal chamber, as well as the vat contained hybrids. When combined with the fact that the Protoss had not fully understood the potential of the Khaydarin Crystals, the possibility that the giant crystal had restored the former Tal'darim leader to his past self before the corruption could not be ruled out. However, after being isolated from other Protoss for so long, it was unclear where his loyalties truly lie.

This was the reason why Zeratul had called Artanis to Scion, to discuss the matter with him, and for him to see Felanis face to face. The Hierarch had been convinced that in order to avoid the pending apocalypse, all of the Protoss brethren would need to stand together. There was little time to fight amongst each other as splinter factions, and for that reason Felanis could be vital in the task ahead. He was a Judicator before the fall of Aiur, and therefore his role in a leadership position could still be intact. Although there had already been much casualties among the Tal'darim here on Aiur, it is hoped that Felanis can resolve the matter without further bloodshed. Even if he is unsuccessful, Artanis still hoped that he could convince the Tal'darim on other worlds to join hands with the Daelaam Protoss against the greater menace.

Of course, none of this was possible unless Felanis had truly returned to the side of the Khala, and that is what Artanis intended to find out. According to his fellow Dark Templar brethren, there seemed to still be resentment towards the Nerazim Protoss, as well as the Khalai Protoss for joining with them. This was nothing new to Artanis, as even during the Zerg invasion that resentment between the sects had remained, and he still had a ways to go to correct this matter.

For now, he approached the former Tal'darim leader carefully, still cautious of any signs of deception. The Hierarch wanted the matter to be resolved as quickly as possible so he could turn his attention back to the retaking of Antioch.

"The so-called Daelaam Protoss has become more desperate than ever I see," Felanis observed. "You are not even 300 years old, Artanis. Who would have thought you would have been given such a position?"

"Our old traditions can no longer suffice in order for us to survive, templar," Artanis replied calmly. "We face a threat so great that the entire Protoss race must unite together, no matter what faction we belong in. Our differences must be set aside to avoid impending doom. As mighty Zeratul had discovered you in the ancient Aiur Caverns, you had already seen the vat hybrid creatures yourself. I know the Tal'darim have fought against the Zerg during the years you had been left behind on Aiur."

"And we have had far greater success than the Shel'na Kryhas! You act as if I had clung to the old traditions myself! I too had changed some of them upon creating the Tal'darim!"

"Your traditions were forged when you served under Ulrezaj," Zeratul intervened. "You had said it yourself you knew his true identity, and you had claimed you had been freed from the corruption that he had done to you with the Sundrop substance."

"I am no longer the fanatic I once was," Felanis answered. "Yet I still find it unwise for the unification of the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss. Although the Judicator Aldaris had changed his mind about consorting with the Dark Templar has being heresy, the fact remains there would be the hatred among the people."

"The task is difficult," Artanis admitted. "But as long as I am Hierarch, I will unite the Protoss together, the way it always was."

"You will never succeed, young one. By now even you must know the Dark Templar shall never embrace the Khala as we had."

"We need not to," Zeratul said. "The Khalai Protoss have yet to fully understand the power of the Void and what it grants us. It is from the Void that gives us the united strength of the Nerazims."

"The intention of Khas is to unite all of the Protoss to the Khala! It is what all of the Khalai Protoss stand for!" Felanis seethed with anger, staring at Artanis with hatred. "How dare you defy the very origins of our traditions!"

"You had come close to embracing the Void yourself," Artanis countered. "The Sundrop Ulrezaj gave you had cut off your link to the Khala, and the Tal'darim had displayed many characteristics that were similar to the Dark Templar. You forget that the Khala alone is not enough to stop the Zerg. Had it not been for Zeratul and his Dark Templar in coming to Aiur and bringing the presence of the Void, the Overmind would never have been slain."

"Khas may be revered and honored in Protoss history, but the truth is none of us could have foreseen the situation that we are in now. It does not mean that he was wrong to unite the Protoss under the Khala, but it is possible that this tradition was never meant to be held indefinitely. Throughout our entire history, the way of the ancient traditions is something we had always tried to hold on to, and now our enemies are using this against us," Zeratul added. "We no longer live in a world where these traditions can be followed. You had seen what horrors Ulrezaj had done to the Tal'darim, can you honestly say such actions were within Dark Templar traditions?"

"What is it that you ask of me?" Felanis said impatiently.

"Although much of the Tal'darim had been killed on Aiur, there are certain places where they remain," Artanis replied. "Thus far, you have been the only contact made that has not resulted in a hostile response. We cannot afford further bloodshed amongst each other when dealing with the Zerg."

"You wish for me to have the Tal'darim join hands with you? They will do no such thing, Artanis. They have been infused with the sheer and utter hatred of the Nerazim Protoss, and will oppose any Khalai Protoss that have ever joined hands with them."

"That is only due to them being cut off by the Khala, Felanis. That corruption is not irreversible, and we already have proof of such Tal'darim Protoss having regained their former selves. You were their leader once, surely you must still carry some weight amongst them."

"They will see me as nothing but a traitor who had been corrupted by the Dark Templar. If so, they would rather die than listen to what I have to say."

"We only ask that you try," Zeratul explained. "The more Protoss we unite, the greater our odds of surviving the pending menace."

* * *

**Dominion Prison HQ, New Folsom**

Colonel Winters listened grimly to the reports now flooding into his command center. The defenses on New Folsom were rapidly failing. Thanks to the actions of the two ghosts, several of the military cell blocks had already been burst open. The Thors he had sent to defend those blocks failed disastrously, and the freed prisoners were already commandeering Hellions, Siege Tanks, Goliaths, and Diamondbacks to support the assault. Raynor's forces, backed up by the traitor Warfield and his Dominion turncoats, were pressing forward with them. They were moving forward towards one of the Thor holding pens. Although there were many more throughout the complex, Thor pilots were not easy to train, and therefore there were very few of them at New Folsom. On the other hand, since Warfield had half the Dominion fleet with him during his assault to Char, it was logical to assume he still had plenty of such pilots left despite the appalling casualties they suffered, assuming Raynor had no Thor pilots of his own, what was highly unlikely.

If the Thors were released from the holding pen, it's all over. Although the gestalts in theory were individually capable of defeating a Thor by themselves, the fact remained that Mengsk had only sent 35 of them to New Folsom. By now, thanks to the actions of Nova Terra and Sarah Kerrigan, only about 20 of them are still alive. To make things worse, the holding pen they were pushing towards contained more than 100 Thors, and Winters was sure Raynor and Warfield had the pilots to get them all running, even of none of the prisoners could pilot the Thors themselves.

Should the mechanical walkers be released, they can easily blast a way to his Planetary Fortress command center. True his command center's Ibiks Cannon did hit harder compared to Thor's Hammer Particle Beams, but it had a slower rate of fire in comparison, and that was assuming the Thor did not use its 250mm Strike Cannons for an artillery barrage. In any case he was too heavily outnumbered, and despite the heavy armor plating on his command center, it could not last very long against dozens of Thors pounding at it.

"Colonel, we're not going to be able to hold out like this much longer!" A marine reported in from the communications console. "Raynor's top ghosts are countering just about everything we throw at them! Only your new hybrid soldiers seem to be able fight them on par, but his Raiders are preventing that! Whatever you're going to do, we need it now!"

Winters turned to one of his officers. "It's time to throw in the last gamble chip. Send word to all remaining tank crews. Tell them it's time to use the new generation of tanks that had been planned to eventually replace the siege tank."

"Sir, those are still unstable!" The officer protested. "Their weapons systems haven't been properly tested yet, not even for the mining purposes!"

"Look around you!" Winters exploded. "If Raynor gets to that Thor holding pen he'll have enough firepower to squish the rest of our defenses at will! His two top ghosts have already wrecked havoc with our security system, and the gestalts have been unable to deal with them thanks to the rest of Raynor's Raiders! These new tanks are our last hope to keep them back! Send word to all the tanks crews that can pilot those tanks and get them to the frontlines immediately!"

* * *

**Dominion Base, Bel'Shir**

Madison's recommendation of one shot one kill turned out to be utterly useless in battle. The two weakest Protoss fighting units were the High Templar and the Sentry, but due to their plasma shields, none of the bullets from the C-14 Gauss Rifles were able to penetrate in one shot. The auto turrets that had been set up along the defensive line fared better, but standard rifle fire was simply not going to cut it.

To deal with the Protoss quickly, most marines were resorting to their grenade launchers attached to their heavy gauss rifles, as did the general himself. Many of them were discharging EMP grenades to quickly drain the plasma shields power, while others waited for such a moment to fire their fragmentation grenades to deal with the Protoss quickly. The War Pigs have been especially effective at this, holding out successfully against multiple waves of Zealot attacks.

However, they too were beginning to show signs of cracks in their defenses, and it's not just because the battle was wearing them down. Quick to adapt to the battle tactics, the Tal'darim were sending in more and more Stalkers to attack the front lines. Madison was quick to see the implications of this, as the Stalkers had some sort of short range teleportation ability, and this made it extremely difficult to hit them with the EMP grenades as they did not has as large of a blast radius effect.

Behind him, the siege tanks were providing as much fire support as they could from their shock cannons, but each time a huge success was made, the Protoss would retaliate with a Void Ray attack. This had forced large numbers of War Pigs to immediately shift their position to go defend the tanks, and as a result they were forced to leave the relative safety of their trenches and be temporarily exposed out in the open, where they were frequently targeted by Protoss Immortals. Although they had additional protection from their shoulder mounted M98 Ballistic Alloy Combat Shields, these were still far inferior to the plasma shields of the Protoss and could withstand far less punishment. Indeed, by now many of them were forced to take the combat shields off Dominion marines as theirs had been blown apart by the Immortals' phase disruptor attacks.

In the air, the Scout attacks have also increased, but fortunately the Wraiths were still able to hold their own ground against them. Madison was thankful for that, as he and his fellow infantrymen continued to fire at the incoming Protoss attack waves while ships from both sides dueled for control over the skies overhead.

Vultures had been deployed to lay down more Spider Mines, but the Tal'darim were starting to adapt to this strategy as well. Due to their hardened shields, such an explosion would have little effect on Immortals, and as such in many attacks these cybernetic walkers spearheaded the assaults, flanked by Stalkers to provide fire support for the weaker attacks that are known not to trigger the hardened shields.

Madison was still firing at the Stalkers when a nearby console beeped, and he hurried over to it. Normally the adjutant AIs would not interrupt him in the midst of battle, as it knows such interruptions could do more harm than good in terms of casualties. Therefore, whatever info it had must be very important.

"Talk to me, adjutant," Madison said. "What's the problem here?"

"General, I'm detecting a high energy spike within the confines of the Tal'darim Protoss base."

"But I haven't ordered any attacks there yet! What's going on?"

"Bringing on screen now. High energy Protoss Archon warping in to Tal'darim base."

Madison shook his head in disgust. It was bad enough fighting the currently Tal'darim Protoss already, now they're going to bring in Archons. As far as he knew it, those things were made of pure energy, yet possess more power than most would dare admit. Beings like that would be hard pressed even for his Thors to take on.

"Analysis complete," the adjutant continued. "Class 11 Protoss Archon entity has entered the Protoss base. Recommend extreme caution: entity abilities currently unknown."

The general looked at his nearby marines, deeply concerned. Such a threat level class was virtually unheard of, and most of his boys never bothered to pay attention to the threat levels as they were able to handle them in battle. However Madison himself had shown interest during the occasional times, and most classes never went above 5 or 6. Just what kind of an enemy could they be dealing with now?

* * *

**Tal'darim Base, Bel'Shir**

"Greetings my brothers," Ulrezaj announced, as he warped into the Tal'darim base.

"Mighty Xava'tor," a High Templar greeted. "We are honored by your presence here. For some time we had only heard of you, but you are a legend among my Tal'darim brethren. We never thought we would be able to see you in person."

"Your humbleness is not necessary, noble Templar," the Dark Archon replied, thankful for the illusion spell that had been placed on him. Indeed, all of the surrounding Tal'darim only saw him as a Khalai Archon.

"Please forgive us, as you have caught the Tal'darim at a most unfortunate time. An unknown terran presence has landed on the sacred moon of Bel'Shir. Whatever their goals are, the terrans are clearly not friendly, and have no respect for the sacredness of these lands, or our holy relics. Our scouts had intercepted some of their transmissions, and we now know it is their intention to steal the Breath of Creation from our mystic altars."

Ulrezaj looked over in the direction of the terran base with disgust. Seems like that's all the terrans ever do: steal from the Protoss, no matter which sect they belong to, and desecrate anything and everything that is considered holy to them.

"I had come to ask of you to join hands with me in a mission of my own," he said calmly. "But it is clear these terrans must be taught a lesson in their arrogance in thinking they can take anything they desire from the Protoss without consequence. Send your Probes to seal off the Breath of Creation altars immediately, and mobilize your air fleet. As the terrans have refused to heed your warning to leave Bel'shir, we shall now burn their presence here to the ground."


	30. Chapter 30

**Author's Note: Everyone, I have the next chapter up!**

**This chapter will be a little bit less diverse, I wrote it to concentrate mostly on the actions taking place at New Folsom. The chapter for the most part will focus on Kerrigan and her struggles.**

**It will certainly be part of her redemption, but right now I decided to focus on her skills now that she is a ghost again, and this chapter will show she is still every bit as deadly as ever.**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter 30

**New Folsom**

Sarah hid behind the wreckage of one of the burnt out Hellions as a tank she had never seen before open fire with its huge laser turret, instantly blowing the 3 Goliaths advancing in front of her apart. "Nova, you want to tell me what the hell is that thing?"

"I've only heard rumors, but Mengsk had wanted to build some sort of tank meant to replace the Siege Tank, said it was to better protect the Dominion when the Zerg eventually return," the blond ghost replied, joining up with her.

"That thing blew apart Goliaths in a single shot!" Franklin shouted from a few feet away. "Even the Diamondbacks aren't that powerful!"

"Rumors had it that this was supposed to be one of the experimental vehicles Mengsk planned to incorporate some Protoss technology into it," Nova explained, returning fire with her C-20 Canister Rifle. "It's certainly living up to that reputation."

By now, the assault on the Thor holding pen had been reduced to a crawl, as the new tanks tore infantry and vehicles alike apart. They were heavier in comparison to the Siege Tanks as well, and Nova found extreme difficult in telekinetically moving them. Kerrigan had much better luck, still being able to psionically pick them up and hurl them into the magma below, but this was made difficult by the sheer number of the tanks now being deployed on the front line.

Jim had already made an attempt to relieve pressure by sending down Wraith fighters to deal with them, but this had failed disastrously. Apparently these new tanks' laser turrets were capable of firing at air targets as well, making them a multi-purpose vehicle for anti-air, anti-armor, and anti-personnel.

To make things worse, the Thor holding pen was located on the other side of a relatively narrow bridge suspended over the lava, making it an easy choke point to defend. While scans had indicated that the bridge was strong enough to support Thors, it so narrow that they would have to travel in a single line. Jim had argued against such an attack, as destroying a single Thor would block the entire advancing column.

The two infantry support bridges did not have the new tanks defending it, but were being held by all of the remaining gestalts. Although the War Pigs were better fighters than their Dominion marine counterparts, they were still no match for the Protoss-Terran hybrids, and they had suffered appalling casualties in an attempt to take the bridges.

Now Sarah, Nova, and Franklin were near one of them, being held up by withering fire from the gestalts, as the New Folsom Goliaths continued to pound their position with autocannon fire. Sarah had used her psionic powers to get some of the hellfire missiles in the Goliaths to detonate prematurely, but other Goliaths simply took their place.

"If we can just take one of these bridges, we can send in our light vehicles," Franklin observed.

"That's not going to accomplish a thing," Nova pointed out. "The first Hellion attack on the gestalts failed disastrously, and even if by some miracle they succeed, they're no match for the new tanks."

Sarah touched her comm-link. "Jim, have you had any luck in finding out weaknesses in those tanks yet?"

"No, but I did get some information from intercepted transmissions about them. Seems like they had originally been intended for mining purposes. That laser turret you see had originally been intended to blast through really strong rock emplacements for faster mining, and the two giant buzzsaws positioned at its front were meant for the same thing at closer distance. It was exactly why the Dominion had designated them Laser Drill Tanks. Of course, the military soon saw use for them as weapons, though the intercepted transmissions have shown their cooling systems testing has not been completed yet, and that is why orbital scans have indicated most of the shots they're firing are at low energy levels. Firing anything higher and repeatedly could end up overloading those cooling systems, and blowing the whole rig in the process."

An idea suddenly came into Sarah's mind. "Jim, is there any infantry that is able to withstand that laser even at low levels?"

"Not likely, Sarah. You saw what it did to Warfield's boys. Half the marines and marauders are no long willing to move forward anymore until those tanks are dealt with."

Kerrigan turned to Franklin and Nova. "Keep providing fire on those gestalts. Force them to focus on you, I have an idea to take the bridge."

"Sarah, I know you're good, but these are hybrids we're talking here!" Franklin protested. "If you sneak across to the other side you'll be completely alone with no hope of fire support of any kind!"

Sarah patted him gently on the shoulder. "Trust me on this, it's the only way to prevent any more appalling casualties."

"But you could get killed!" Nova protested. "I know that Zerg blood healed you on Agria, but you said it yourself you don't know if it'll work like that again!"

"It's just a risk I'm going to have to take," Sarah replied. "Look around you. Men are falling like flies thanks to those tanks. If we can get past them and the gestalts, it'll be a clear way to the Thor holding pen. According to you, once we get the Thors, the rest of the security will fall like dominoes, so they must be putting everything they've got here to stop us. If my plan works, we'll crack New Folsom wide open."

Without another word Kerrigan cloaked, her entire body vanishing in a flash of light blue hue.

"Fanaticism has its advantages," Franklin observed, as he and Nova continued to provide fire support against the gestalts on the bridge. "Still, this is utter insanity."

"I don't like it much either," Nova replied. "But you saw what happened on Agria. She's has her advantages. And if you had seen what I saw when the two of us were leading the attack to get into the complex, you would have seen she's much more powerful than most of us can imagine."

* * *

**Temple Ruins, Aiur**

"We've got more Colossi inbound!" A marine shouted, ducking behind cover to avoid the thermal lance beams. However, this put him directly in the line of an Immortal's fire, and he was blown apart by the mechanical walker's phase disruptors.

Desperate for more ammunition, fellow marines and War Pigs have begun taking the gauss rifles of their fallen comrades, and in many cases even from the wounded. The supply Dropships were simply not arriving fast enough to deal with the situation at hand. Ridgeway had ordered Perdition Turrets to be built at the defense line, and this had somewhat stemmed the Zealot attacks, as their power suits were more vulnerable to the fire. However, this was useless against the Colossi as their thermal lances had longer range. Each time a Perdition Turret popped from out of the ground to unleash its flames, the Colossi would immediately target them.

Flanking the general, the Vikings were firing continuously with their Gatling Cannons, but the Stalkers and Sentries continued to pour in. Many cases the pilots found themselves frustrated by wasting ammo in firing at hallucinations the Sentries had created, while other times the small robotic units generated force fields, preventing the laid Spider Mines from scurrying over to their targets and detonating on them.

On the high grounds, the remaining Siege Tanks continued to pound the incoming Protoss with their shock cannons, but there were too many in number, and as such the Protoss nevertheless were able to advance forward. The Reapers tried to add in additional support by using their D-8 Charges, but this often forced them to get within close range of the Zealots. With only their P-38 Pistol at closer range combat, they were no match for the Protoss warriors' psionic blades and many were cut to pieces.

The BattleCruisers had sent down as many Ravens as they could, and they had done a superb job of detecting real copies from hallucinations for the terran defenders. This had been especially helpful to the gestalts, as their miniguns mowed down many of the real Zealots, while using their psionic blast ability to unleash inertia against other Zealots and pushing them into the line of fire of the Perdition Turrets. The Ravens themselves had deployed auto turrets to the scene, and they too added their fire to the incoming waves of Protoss.

However, the turrets were useless against the Colossi, and in the current attack wave, many of them were destroyed, while inflicting only minimal damage to the towering walkers. Wraith fighters had been pulled off escort duties from the supply ships to counterattack, and this had reduced Dropship activity to a minimum.

All over the battlefield, Ridgeway saw that his men had reached their endurance limits. Truth be told, he was nearing it himself, but he still believed in getting off the planet alive and in one piece. In comparison, only the War Pigs and gestalts seemed to share his point of view, as just about everyone else had completely lost hope in the matter.

The only good news so far is that the engineering team had completed their excavation task, and Ridgeway had used that to give his remaining men the resolve to fight on. Unfortunately, the ore loader vehicles that the team had used to load the package onto had no offensive or defensive weaponry at all. True it could load some 50 infantrymen onto it, but most of that space had been taken up by whatever had been obtained from the temple ruins.

With most of the Wraiths being called to the area to defend against the Colossi, it deprived the Dropships of any escort should they come under attack from Protoss Scouts. Even if one was lucky enough to get to the surface unscathed, there's no guarantee it could return to the BattleCruiser in the same state. Thus the general knew it was too risky to load such a ship with the excavated goods from the ruins, as if the Dropship is destroyed all of the hard work and effort the engineering team had spent would have been for nothing, and his forces simply did not have the strength to hold out for a repeat excavation.

"People, concentrate your fire on any Protoss anti-air units you can see!" Ridgeway shouted over the sounds of battle. "Those Colossi can't attack our Wraiths, so if we kill their anti-air support, our Wraiths will dispose of them. Once they've done that, they can escort our Dropships again. The engineering team has the goods standing by to be sent off world, so once we rid the Colossi, we're out of here!"

* * *

**New Folsom**

From under the bridge, Sarah heard the gunfire repeatedly clatter out. She could only hope Nova and the others were successfully holding out against the gestalts. Every second she delayed getting across to the other side means more soldiers would have to die.

Fortunately, none of the Dominion's forces bothered to look under the infantry bridge, possibly because it was suspended over the magma and the slightest slip would mean instant death in the lava below. Sarah concluded that while Nova may have trained the ghosts into elite fighters, she had never bothered to train them to fight in the location she was in. This of course was understandable, as she was holding on to steel pipes under the bridge's bottom with her arms, moving under the bridge towards the other side. All ghosts had to undertake such training, but none had to actually perform such a task over lava.

Not to mention in her case, there were very few pipes placed in the locations she had wanted them to be. As such, Sarah also had to use telekinesis to move some of the pipes into the straight line position for her to keep going. This meant many times she had to support her own weight with just her psionic powers, and that made it all the more difficult.

As she moved forward along the pipes towards the other side, Kerrigan could hear Nova mentally communicating with her telepathically. _You and Jim are way too much alike, Sarah. You're every bit as crazy as he is._

Sarah smiled. _Sometimes crazy works, Nova. Besides, I haven't had any opposition so far. Looks like none of the Dominion security had expected me to do this._

_Using your telekinesis to support your weight over lava? That's something even I've never tried before. But if you think it'll work, I believe you._

Sarah mentally nodded before moving on. The closer she got to the other side, the louder the gunfire became. As the gestalts could be just as psionically as strong as Nova, she did not expect too much luck from her on the other side to take care of them. Fortunately, she had seen their fighting skills, and they were not too much different from that of Zealots with their psionic blades. During her time with the Zerg she had fought her share of them, and had gained enough experience to know their weaknesses.

Finally reaching the other side, she positioned herself onto one of the metal beams under the bridge. From above, she could see the gestalts still firing their miniguns, support by the Dominion infantrymen. Reapers were placing their D-8 Charges in position, ready to be detonated should the raiders get that far. However, as she was still cloaked, none of them had noticed her yet.

Unfortunately, having such a high psionic signature also had its drawbacks. Sarah had tried to dampen it as much as she could, but she was too powerful to go unnoticed. During her time in training with Nova on Haven, she had told the blond ghost of the Zerg having the natural talent to sense psionic individuals, and Nova had explained this was something that the Dominion Ghost Program had tried to incorporate onto itself as well. As such, it didn't surprise Sarah one bit that one of the gestalts suddenly stopped firing, sensing a psionic signature nearby.

"We don't have the time for you to go looking for people!" A marine nearby shouted. "We need to hold these raiders off from busting the prison open!"

"Don't tell me what to do!" the gestalt shot back. "I can sense someone powerful nearby, and something tells me it's no ally!"

Seeing the moment of distraction, Sarah hoisted herself upwards. Unfortunately, her timing proved to be faulty as it coincided with an EMP grenade explosion launched from the other side of the bridge. Franklin knew the EMP blast would weaken the power suits on the gestalts, but unfortunately it also affected Sarah's psionic hostile environment suit. The blast had caused her cloak to deactivate, allowing all the gestalts and infantrymen to see her.

"Intruder! Kill her!" A marine shouted, before immediately having his brain fried as Sarah unleashed her psychic attack. Several Reapers fell to the ground screaming, holding their heads in pain as her psychic attack had affected them as well.

The gestalts, however, did not suffer as much. Being ghosts themselves, albeit cloned, and combined with Protoss technology, their psionic powers had allowed them to form a psychic barrier which acted as a shield. Although Kerrigan's psionic attack was extremely powerful and penetrated most of them regardless, the fact remained that the damage done was much less than what the red haired ghost had hoped for.

One of them ignited his psionic blade on his right arm and used the psionic speed charging ability to rapidly close the distance, but Sarah raised her arm and let loose a psionic bolt which instantly stopped the gestalt in his tracks. Channeling her energies, she telekinetically hurled the gestalt backwards into the others, before letting loose a psionic storm. Some of the gestalts tried to cast a psionic barrier, but they had little experience with their new psionic powers, and this led to the blue lightning crackling through the barriers, leaving many of the gestalts badly scarred.

"Divert some of those tanks here right now!" A firebat shouted into his radio, before letting loose the flames on his perdition flamethrower. Mustering her strength, Sarah channeled her psionic energy into barrier of her own to shield herself from the flames, before opening fire with her C-20 Canister Rifle. The firebat exploded in a fireball as his fuel tank was hit, and many marines met a similar end as Sarah telekinetically jammed their rifles, before using her power to pull the pins from their fragmentation grenades.

"Enough of this!" A gestalt shouted. Using his psionic powers, he unleashed a blast of pure inertia towards Kerrigan, briefly knocking her off balance for a moment. Focusing his strength, he unleashed it again, this time knocking Sarah to the ground.

The engine roar caused Sarah to turn her head. Her eyes widened. One of the Laser Drill Tank was speeding towards her, the buzzsaws at its front spinning, ready to grind her into a meat pulp. As the gestalt charged towards her, his psionic blade lit, she allowed him to close the distance. Just as he was within striking range, she suddenly leapt into the air, doing a somersault over the gestalt. Landing behind him, Sarah unleashed a psionic blast of her own, sending the gestalt screaming into the buzzsaws of the Laser Drill Tank.

Without giving the tank driver a chance to comprehend what just happened, Kerrigan blasted the vehicle with another psionic inertia, sending it flipping onto its side. Raiser her rifle, she fired at the now exposed fuel tank on its underbelly, before bolting away to avoid the enormous fireball as the entire tank exploded.

Of the remaining gestalts in the area, only one was still in fighting condition. The rest had been too badly wounded by the sheer power of her psionic storm. However, as Sarah took aim to fire, he channeled his psionic speed ability and dashed forward. Igniting his psionic blade, he cut the barrel off Sarah's rifle, before landing a kick to her stomach, knocking her to the ground.

"Don't bother getting up, just die where you lie now!" He shouted, before taking aim with his minigun. However Sarah immediately cloaked, and the next thing the gestalt knew, his arm had been raised up against his will, as Sarah telekinetically yanked the minigun grafted off his arm. As the gestalt howled in pain, Sarah used her martial arts skills in melee combat, landing a kick so hard on the gestalt that it snapped his neck.

Without wasting a moment, Sarah pulled the Psyblade melee weapon from her back, mentally thanking Nova for training with her back on Haven with it. The blond ghost had explained the psionic blades of the Zealot had been of particular interest to the Dominion and their attempts to replicate a weapon of similar power. However research had shown that the blades were created from a combination of psionic energy, and biological and mechanical technology. As this was too advanced to be replicated by terran technology to produce at all, let alone mass produce, something less powerful was created in its place. Yet even this was too difficult to mass produce, so the Psyblade was issued only to the most skilled of the Dominion's soldiers, namely ghosts. As the strongest Dominion ghost, Nova was given access to them, and had a pair on her when she joined the Raiders.

Now that there are two such powerful ghosts on the Raiders, Nova felt it was only fair to give one of them to Sarah and train her with it. Kerrigan knew that the training would have its uses someday, and now proved to be the perfect time.

Channeling her psionic speed, she charged forward with the curved energy weapon, Sarah unleashed a psionic shock attack against the nearby marines. Although the shutting down of their brains is only temporary, a split second was more than enough. Wielding the Psyblade like a katana, marine after marine fell to the ground by her attacks, bleeding heavily.

"Get more of those tanks here immediately!" A marauder shouted into his radio, before opening fire on Sarah with his Quad K12 Punisher Grenade Launcher. However, Sarah leapt into the air and somersaulted, her body spinning in the air, avoiding the grenade attacks, before landing on her feet right behind the marauder. With a swing from her Psyblade, the marauder screamed in pain as his arm was cleanly cut off.

Reapers moved in quickly using their jetpacks, but Sarah used her telekinesis to spin the injured marauder around, before focusing it on his still attached arm and the grenade launcher, firing at the reapers with it. Although the ones in front were killed from surprise, the other reapers quickly adapted and spread themselves apart.

Throwing the marauder at them with her telekinesis, Sarah bolted away to avoid their P-38 Pistol shots, before releasing a psychic attack on them. Many of them anticipated this and tried to scurry away, but the red head channeled her telekinetic powers and used it to pull them towards her, within range of the psychic attack. As the reapers toppled over dead, Sarah had no time to celebrate as Dominion firebats opened up on her with their Perdition Flamethrowers.

By now, 4 Laser Drill Tanks were already within range, and have begun firing at Sarah with their cannons, and their buzzsaws were active as they closed in on her.

However, even without her C-20 Canister Rifle Sarah proved every bit as deadly. Using her psionic speed, she sprinted forward towards the corpse of a Dominion ghost, as the firebats gave chase to her, their flamethrowers blazing with fire. Just as the fire was about to engulf her, Sarah leapt forward, right over the body of the ghost. Using her telekinesis, she pulled his C-10 Canister Rifle into her hands, before spinning around in mid-air and opening fire on the firebats. Two of them immediately exploded in a fireball as their fuel tanks were hit, while 3 others died a more painful death as their fuel tanks leaked, and covered their bodies in flammable fluids.

Sarah didn't even have a chance to catch her breath as the Laser Drill Tanks opened up on her again, their turrets constantly tracking the former Confederate ghost, hunting her down. One of them was closing the distance much faster than the others, its saw blades almost within reach of Sarah.

However, just like the others, the driver had greatly underestimated Kerrigan. As it closed the distance grind her into pulp, Sarah made an incredible leap into the air, somersaulting and spinning gracefully right over the tank. In mid-air, she channeled her psionic powers and telekinetically pulled a heavy gauss rifle from a nearby dead marine into her own hands, discarding the C-10 Canister Rifle she got earlier. As the tank swung its laser turret around and locked on to her, Sarah fired with its attached grenade launcher, the explosive rounds falling right into the gun barrel. Seconds later, the entire turret was blown apart, but the driver never got a chance to recover it. As he stared in shock as his machine was singlehandedly taken down by a ghost, Sarah utilized her telekinesis to pull a piece of armor off from where he sat. Now exposed, she opened fire with her rifle, instantly killing him.

The other 3 tanks stopped immediately, deciding to keep their distance from her as they opened up with their laser turrets, but this was exactly what Kerrigan wanted. Hiding behind cover, she channeled her psionic powers and lifted one of the tanks up into the air. But instead of hurling it at the others as she no doubt expected them to think, Sarah instead utilized her technopathy ability, telepathetically linking her own mind with the tank's machinery systems.

On the ground, the other two tank drivers watched in shock as the tank Sarah suspended in mid-air suddenly turned its laser turret on them. Before they had a chance to react, Sarah focused her psionic energy, and increased the tank's laser output to its maximum power, cutting off the laser turrets on both tanks. Knowing that this would overload the cooling system, Kerrigan immediately hurled the tank in mid-air in the direction of the main bridge. Seconds later, she saw an enormous explosion as the Laser Drill Tank exploded in a fireball, the explosion so massive that it disabled the other Laser Drill Tanks holding the line against the Raiders from proceeding forward towards the Thor holding pen.

Seeing the other two tanks immediately race towards the bridge hoping to plug the hole, Sarah decided to take advantage of the situation. Utilizing her psionic speed, she sprinted after them. Just as the tanks stopped at the bridge, she unleashed pure inertia towards them, sending both of them towards the other infantry support bridge. Moving at such a speed, the Dominion infantrymen had no time to run or take cover, and the screams of them being cut apart by the tanks' still functioning buzzsaws confirmed this.

The sound of artillery barrages made Sarah turn her head, and she was relieved to see a few Thors deployed just beyond the other side of the bridge, opening up with their strike cannons and blowing the last two Laser Drill Tanks apart. With all the gestalts dead or no longer in fighting condition and all the Laser Drill Tanks destroyed, the way was now clear to head for the Thor holding pen.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sarah walked back along the main bridge as Jim's Raiders moved past her, followed closely by Warfield's troops. Franklin and Nova stayed behind however, and Sarah waved to them as soon as she was able to see them.

Nova was beaming at her for what she had accomplished, but Franklin was still having a hard time accepting what he had just seen, that Sarah had the ability to take on more than a dozen gestalts and several of the Dominion's new generation tanks all by herself, along with numerous Dominion infantry, and prevail against the odds, it was just something that he was having a hard time taking it all in.

"You can let it sink in after we're done here," Sarah said, cocking her heavy gauss rifle and patting Franklin on the shoulder. "We've still got a job to do, so let's get to the Thor holding pen, let out the mechanical walkers, and free the rest of the prisoners here."

* * *

**Author's Note: All right, with regards to the new types of tanks that MostazalsLord asked me about last chapter, the Laser Drill Tank was a cancelled Wings of Liberty unit (you can look it up on Starcraft wiki if you type that into the search box). I decided to turn it into a real unit, but the buzzsaws I added in for the sake to make the tank look more formidable.**

**The psyblade is a weapon from Starcraft: Ghost, but since the game didn't come out, I decided to incorporate it into my fic here. Basically it's like a Dominion attempt to create a Zealot psionic blade, and such weapons are only meant to be wielded by the fiercest and deadliest Dominion units, hence why Nova was given one in the game.**

**I thought it would be nice to give Kerrigan one as well. Just picture Kerrigan with a curved samurai sword and you'll get the picture.**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time.**


	31. Chapter 31

**Author's Note: Hey everyone, I have the next chapter here. Sorry about the longer time gaps it's taking for these updates, but other issues of family and work searching have made things increasingly difficult to update at a faster rate. I still hope for that to change later on, but I can't promise anything.**

* * *

Chapter 31

**New Folsom**

As Nova had predicted before the assault on New Folsom began, the main facility was the key to cracking the prison complex's security system. With so much Dominion security strength bled away in the attempts to prevent the military prisoners from escaping, there was little resistance left after Sarah had singlehandedly destroyed their Laser Drill Tanks, as well as defeated their remaining gestalts.

Combined with the clearing of the Thor holding pen and the giant mechanical walkers moving out to assist in the raid, it was clear to most of the remaining Dominion security forces that there was no hope of preventing a breakout. Some of their officers tried to maintain order, but it was soon clear even to them that further resistance was pointless. Only the most fanatical ones ordered their men to fight on, but it soon became clear they had wanted continued resistance so it would buy them time to reach their shuttles, saving their own lives at the expense of their soldiers. Most of the Dominion marines were quick to see that, and in each and every case, they chose to defy their superior officer and lay down their arms.

After the fall of the main compound, the 12 secondary ones made little attempt to resist Raynor's Raiders. The fact that no one had ever cracked New Folsom's security in the past 50 years was because all of the raids had targeted one of the secondary facilities, allowing the main facility to mobilize and send reinforcements to stabilize the situation. No defense plans had ever been made in the event the main compound was taken before any of the secondary ones.

Without the main facility's ability to reinforce any of the secondary ones, the defenses of the latter consisted little more than auto turrets and infantrymen, mostly suited to defend against a solely infantry attack, with very few marauders in the case of enemy armor. This, of course, wasn't even enough to slow down the might of the Raiders, let alone turn them back.

Now, the blond ghost watched as the remaining Dominion security forces were escorted at gunpoint into the very cells that once held all of the inmates. Although many of Warfield's men had wanted them to be killed for the appalling casualties they had suffered, Jim eventually convinced the general to order them to be imprisoned instead. The rebel commander had reminded Warfield that the entire purpose of the Raiders and their revolution is to save lives, and that involves removing a corrupt leadership, namely Mengsk. His soldiers did not share this part of the corruption, and therefore should not suffer as badly. Indeed, many of Warfield's soldiers admitted Raynor was nothing like the devil their emperor had portrayed him as over the media during all this time, and therefore decided that if they could be convinced to see him differently, perhaps in time so could other people in the Dominion.

Of course, getting the prisoners to see that took little difficulty. It was getting them to see former Dominion soldiers now part of the Raiders that was difficult. Even now, as she watched the long columns of liberated prisoners leaving the complex, Nova could see the hesitation on their faces as they gazed at some of Warfield's men. Clearly there were some that were familiar faces to them, and it was not the type that they were glad to see.

Even for herself, most of the looks she got from the prisoners were ones of fear, hatred, and coldness. This of course was no surprise, as she was known to be the Dominion's deadliest assassin to them. None of them knew she had turned against the Dominion and was now a Raider, no longer the cold hearted killer she once was.

Sarah, on the other hand, had received a far more warmhearted greeting from most of them, although Nova felt this was more than likely because virtually none of them knew she was the Queen of Blades. Granted she herself still didn't believe Sarah was that Zerg monster to begin with, others did not feel that way. For those that never knew however, namely the New Folsom prisoners, she was seen as a heroine to them, one who freed them from the Dominion's slavery.

Despite the friendship she had with Sarah and the fact she understood the different receptions, it nevertheless still hurt Nova deep down. Although back on Haven she had told Sarah to fight alongside others to gain their trust, the reality is she had to face the same issues she had told Kerrigan. After all that time of serving as one of Mengsk's slaves, she had earned her reputation as one of the most feared individuals of the Dominion's enemies. Just like Sarah, she had her road ahead of her for redemption.

"Despite the fact most marines never really see eye to eye with ghosts, I'm glad you and Kerrigan are here," Franklin said, walking up to the blond ghost. "This raid never would have succeeded without you two, not to mention I'd be among the KIAs."

Nova nodded, never taking her eyes off the columns of prisoners walking past her.

"You're hurting," Franklin said softly. "I can tell. It's the prisoners, isn't it?"

She let out a deep sigh. Normally she'd be telling Jim or Sarah about this, but neither one of them was here right now. Although she had the trust of the Raiders, the same was not true for the new additions from Warfield. Nevertheless, she had told Kerrigan that by fighting alongside them enough, they'll learn to trust her. The same was true for Nova, and she decided it was time she began to open up just a bit more to others.

"The cold reception I've been getting from them is quite painful, lieutenant."

"You're not the only one, you know. Only Raynor and his troops have gotten warm receptions."

"But it's worse with me than you," Nova insisted. "You're a marine, I'm a ghost. You're a soldier that fights on the frontlines, I'm an assassin that kills in cold blood, and in the name of a tyrant for that matter. In your case at least they could say you've just been used and deceived by Mengsk. I on the other hand, will be seen completely differently."

Franklin raised an eyebrow. "Even ghosts are still people, you know this."

"You seem to forget about the Neural Inhibitors implanted in our heads. Yes they can be surgically removed, but until then we're just imprisoned within our own heads. Besides, we were all given memory swipes that suppress the memories of all our previous lives. This makes us little more than mindless drones obsequious to our master."

"But Raynor removed that inhibitor in you."

"They don't know that," Nova said, gesturing to the liberated prisoners. "And even if they did I doubt it'd change much. They'd still see me as the same person as when I served under the Dominion."

"So what? You said it yourself about redemption," Franklin countered. "Kerrigan proved us wrong about her on Agria, I'm sure you can do similarly."

"That's true," the blond admitted. "And something tells me it's going to be a lot sooner than you think."

* * *

**Antioch, Aiur**

"We have more Zerg incoming!" A Zealot shouted.

Vartanil threw the corpse of a Zergling down from the high grounds, as he and his brethren defended a Khas statue on the outer edge of Antioch. Although most of the Protoss were eager to retake Aiur's capital, enough had been convinced to lure the Zerg out into the open so that they would become much more exposed and vulnerable to attack. While Antioch is located near a valley with many entrances in which to gain access to the city, the fact remained that only a few of them were large enough to accommodate the vast numbers of Protoss warriors now pouring in to it. As such, the initial strategy had been to position themselves near the entrance and force the Zerg out to attack them, where they would be decimated by the Colossi and Carriers.

This tactic had worked quite well in the early stages, as the Zerg creatures were so thirsty for blood that their killing instincts led them to attack the Protoss immediately. The Exussumers in particular had performed as expected, incinerating entire legions of Zerg to ashes at the cost of only a few of them being knocked out of commission. However as it became clear their strategy was not working, the Zerg retreated back into the city, leaving behind the charred remains of some 38 million Zerg creatures, as well as bodies of hundreds of thousands of Protoss. However the remaining 212 million entrenched within the city remained a formidable force to be reckoned with, and all of them had to be cleared out one by one from their positions.

Although most of central Antioch had be reduced to a wasteland, the outer sectors of the city were in much better condition than Vartanil had been expecting, and there were many reports that the city's recolonization by Protoss survivors had been able to restore the city to a small degree. Indeed, the Shel'na Kryhas survivors on Aiur had made great efforts to rebuild the ancient city, and reports from the Observers had indicated that despite the Zerg concentration in Antioch in response to the Protoss invasion, some of the sectors that had been purified had seen clear signs of Protoss refurbishment.

To the young Protoss warrior, this had also struck him with guilt. Much of his Furinax Tribe had been decimated upon the Zerg invasion of Aiur, and although rebuilt on Shakuras, he had been among the Protoss left behind. The Shel'na Kryhas tribe had rescued him, and he had grown into a close friendship with the templar Alzadar. As he was close friends with the Shel'na Kryhas leader Ladranix, Vartanil had befriended him as well. However Alzadar had been corrupted by the Sundrop provided by Ulrezaj and joined the Tal'darim, and Vartanil had followed him. He greatly missed his close friend, having been killed by the Zerg a year ago, and he also missed his Shel'na Kryhas rescuers, as all of them had been wiped out by the Zerg and Ulrezaj.

Yet there was still one that had remained. Before his corruption, Felanis had been part of the Shel'na Kryhas tribe as well, and he was in Daelaam Protoss custody at Scion. Vartanil was unsure if he had been freed of his corruption from Sundrop, but believed as he himself had broken the addiction, so can Felanis.

Of course, getting the former Tal'darim leader to put his trust in place he did not understand would be quite another matter. During his time with the Tal'darim, Vartanil had known of the templar's fanatical characteristics. He had been greatly angered by the feeling of abandonment by his Khalai Protoss brethren, and this made Felanis difficult to trust others. Vartanil himself had befriended the terran Rosemary Dahl, and this was how Selendis had eventually trusted the terran female. However the female executor had eventually changed her mind about the Dark Templar Protoss, while Felanis harbored the same hatred for them when Vartanil had seen him being brought out of the Xel'Naga caverns.

Nevertheless, the young Protoss warrior hoped that once Aiur is fully restored, he could convince the former Tal'darim leader to put aside his hatred and fight alongside them against the greater evil. During the time he had spent with Rosemary Dahl, Vartanil had already learned there were far more trustworthy terrans than the Protoss would care to admit, and there is certainly the potential of many more of them who could become their allies someday.

For now however, these thoughts had to be set aside as he and his Protoss warriors readied themselves as another Zerg attack wave approached. When it became clear the Zerg were not going to be lured out into the open anymore, he had personally lead one of the spearheads in the initial assault into the city. However as the bulk of the Zerg had withdrawn away from many of the outer sectors, they had been merely bypassed so the Protoss could deal with the Zerg that had fortified themselves deeper into the city. Smaller numbers of Protoss had been left behind in the outer sectors to clear the bypassed Zerg in this fashion, Vartanil had volunteered to be among them.

With almost no air support in the area, Urun felt little reason leave behind his Phoenix fighters, as they were needed against the Corrutors and Mutalisks where the majority of the Zerg were concentrated. However Zekrath did not share his views and had ordered some of his Shelak Guardians Phoenixes to provide air cover for Vartanil and his forces, in the event they are atttacked by Brood Lords, which had proven to be devastating against Protoss Stalkers and Sentries.

Aside from the Phoenix fighters, Vartanil was left with groups of Zealots to engage in glorious combat with the ground Zerg units, though without the ability to significantly reinforce their numbers, they knew they had to act more cautiously than normal. Indeed, many Zerglings had tried to take advantage of the situation by morphing into Banelings, knowing fully well their volatile burst explosion upon detonation would strip the Zealots of their shields rather quickly. As most of the Stalkers at his disposal were used to deal with any air threats, Urun had left behind an adequate number of Immortals to deal with such a threat, knowing such an explosion would have only minor effect on their hardened shields.

Nevertheless, the number of Zerg in the bypassed region had been greatly underestimated, and the continued Roach attacks had taken its toll on the Protoss defenders. Most of the Zealots, Stalkers, Immortals, Sentries, and even the towering Colossi, a few of which were at Vartanil's disposal to pick off the Zerg ground attackers from a distance, were now dangerously low on their plasma shields. A Shield Battery had been placed at their location to compensate for this, but the relentless Zerg attacks had forced too many of their warriors to fall back to it for rapid shield recharging. As such, the Khaydarin Crystal within used to store the psionic energy had its supply being drained far quicker than it could replenish itself, and by now had been fully depleted, leaving Vartanil and the others to face the next Zerg attack wave in a much more weakened state than before.

As the Stalkers opened up with their particle disruptors, Vartanil could only hope that the battle elsewhere in the city was going according to plan. Each time there was a pause in the fighting here, he and the other Protoss could hear the sounds of battle elsewhere in Antioch.

"Pygalisks! Do not allow them to reach our Colossi!" He shouted, igniting his psionic blades. The Zealots beside him did the same, and they charged into battle against the Zerg creatures. In moments, the sounds of battle echoed across the streets, as Vartanil and the others desperately tried to hold on to their positions.

* * *

**Bel'Shir**

Ulrezaj watched from behind the frontlines as many of the terran structures were burned to ashes by the Tal'darim Void Rays. It was clear whatever purpose the terrans had for the Breath of Creation by attempting to steal it from the Protoss on Bel'Shir, the chances of them getting it was highly unlikely. By now, all of the terran defenders on the defensive line had been killed, and the Observer reports had indicated that what remained were retreating back towards their base. Although their air units had continued to harass the Tal'darim, they had become more of a nuisance than a threat.

He himself had personally intervened in that matter. As he could not be harmed by non-energy attacks, the Dark Archon had repeated moved close to the terrans' position. As he had anticipated, this had caused many of the terran ships to fly down and provide cover for them, and many foolishly swooped low enough to be targeted by his psionic energy attacks.

Despite their speed, Ulrezaj himself was exceedingly quick, having the ability to teleport himself about the battlefield, and this had allowed him to catch up with many of the terran flyers. Once caught, there were very few that were lucky enough to escape their fates.

By now, the Void Rays were targeting the terran buildings, knowing fully well they made ideal targets for their prismatic beams. However, from the intercepted transmissions, it would appear many of the terran warriors called War Pigs survived, and were defending the buildings from them. He had intended to go down to the terran base and level it himself, but the terrans had cut off the entrances with walkers called Thors. While their attacks were unable to do physical harm to the Dark Archon, their cannons were nevertheless able to force him to recoil, and in the face of such attacks, eventually forced him back.

Nevertheless, the battle had gone well into his favor. Most of the mines that had been laid by the terrans had been overcome, and Ulrezaj could see the waves of Zealots pressing ever closer to the terran base entrance, despite the constant cannon fire from the Thors. With much of the terran air power neutralized, Colossi were also headed towards the base, and the Observer reports he had been receiving had indicated that just about anyone left that could fight were being mobilized in the terran base, a clear sign that this was a last ditch effort to keep the Protoss back.

Turning his sights away from the battle, the Dark Archon teleported himself back into the Tal'darim base, to be once again greeted by the High Templars, still seeing him as their mighty Xava'tor.

"You have performed admirably, my brothers," he said. "The terran presence has been all but eradicated, our Breath of Creation on Bel'Shir is safe."

"It is you who had assisted us, mighty one," a High Templar answered. "Were it not for your skills, the terran air ships would have posed a far greater threat than we had anticipated."

"That is irrelevant now. The terran base here is finished. Whether they are able to escape from Bel'shir or not matters little, as they will never dare to set foot on this sacred land again."

"Then what is thy will?"

"We must unite the Tal'darim on other worlds," Ulrezaj replied. "Your numbers here may be substantial, but it is insufficient to deal with the might of our enemies. With the terrans here defeated and almost all of the altars sealed, there is no need to maintain such a strong force here on Bel'Shir. Rather, we must gather ourselves and unite with the Tal'darim on other worlds. Once that is accomplished, we shall strike a far greater blow against our enemies."

* * *

**Author's Note: All right, so with regards to why I didn't write Ulrezaj just going into the terran base and slaughtering everyone inside, the reason is quite simple. Ulrezaj is a Dark Archon, a being of immense power. But while he's stronger than just about any other Dark Archon we know, the fact remains he's far from all powerful.**

**For that reason it makes no difference how much strength he has, there's still limits to what he can do. But don't worry, I promise you that Ulrezaj will have more opportunities to show off his power later on in the fic.**

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time.**


	32. Chapter 32

**Author's Note: Greetings people, I finally have the next chapter written out. Finding the spare time to write remains difficult as ever, but it is my hope that by mid to late this month the situation can finally improve.**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

* * *

Chapter 32

**Tal'darim Base, Aiur**

"Master, I do not understand," the hybrid said. "What reason have you for allowing the terrans to leave Aiur with what they have stolen?"

"Zeratul did not do as I had anticipated," the Dark Voice answered. "I had expected him and his Dark Templar brethren to destroy the vats, thus in turn releasing some of my creations. They would have slaughtered him and all those within the sanctuary. Instead, he had left them intact and are planning to move them off world."

"Then let me deal with him, master. I will recover them for you and release them out into the world."

"Not with this many Protoss on Aiur, young one. Your skills are exceptional, but even you have limits in the face of overwhelming numbers. As it will take a considerable amount of time before my other creations can be awakened, I cannot afford to waste your skills. For now, call off the Tal'darim under your command."

"As you wish, but the numbers to bend to our will are rapidly dwindling. The Daelaam Protoss have begun pushing towards their capital city of Antioch as we speak."

"That is why you are to leave the Tal'darim base at once. It will not be long before the Protoss locate these survivors and attempt to bring them back to the Khala. They must not know you are the one who has corrupted them. I will have other plans for the Tal'darim."

"Ulrezaj has done well in bringing the tribe under his command again," the hybrid said. "It would appear he is gathering his strength from them off worlds."

"His actions will be beneficial to dealing with the terrans that have yet to see the true threat," the Dark Voice replied. "The Tal'darim army he will unite shall be used to crush them before they even realize the greater scope of the picture. As for you my servant, you are to go to the last Zerg concentration on Aiur and prepare accordingly."

"The 600 million Zerg nestled at the corpse of the Overmind are too vast in numbers," the hybrid pointed out. "Despite the Queen of Blades's defeat on Char, you know the difficulties in controlling so many of them."

"Only in terms of attack. Kerrigan had foolishly evolved them to be much more intelligent and less guiding in terms of defense, and therefore it will take little effort on your end to organize them effectively. No doubt the Protoss will know such an offensive will require a maximum effort on their part, and even then the cost will be catastrophic to them."

"I shall leave at once, master."

"Concentrate on mustering the advanced Zerg breeds there. Few had been so far encountered by the Protoss on Aiur as the Zerg had concentrated almost all of them near the Overmind itself. Even if the Protoss succeed in wiping out the Zerg defenders here, they can and will be easily replaced, whereas the Protoss numbers cannot. The sheer overwhelming numbers of the Zerg will lay waste to them all, once the last loose ends that meddle in my ascension have been tied up and disposed of."

* * *

**Antioch, Aiur**

Urun repeatedly fired the ion cannons of his Phoenix fighter into the Zerg flyers. The assault on Antioch had been going as expected, though casualties had remained extremely high for the Protoss. The damage done to the ancient city, however, had now proved to be a severe drawback for the Zerg defenders.

Past the outer sectors of the province, the inner areas of Anticoh had been reduced to a wasteland, as deserts and ashlands now replaced where forests and jungles once were. There were still some mountainous terrain that gave signs of the city's former state, but they had all been stripped bare of the greens that once inhabited it. As such, this had made it extremely difficult for the Zerg to use any environmental barriers that would provide a natural defense against the Protoss. In addition, with virtually nothing left in the inner and central sectors of the city, there was no need to worry about collateral damage, so anything that did not resemble Protoss would automatically become a viable target.

One of the few things that had remained, surprisingly enough, were the Antioch Water Reserviors. This has been quickly picked up from the Motherships, flying high above over the battlefield, providing assistance in the most critical areas. This had in fact been the primary objective when the assault had begun, as the Zerg could not adapt to the water. Thus if destroyed, all the Zerg ground minions in the city would inevitably drown, and thus immediately priority had taken place to reach the reserviors.

However, the Zerg were not blind to the danger. Realizing it was too late to blow the reserviors themselves when they began to fortify Antioch as the initial Protoss invasion began, they had concentrated some of their heaviest forces in that area. Indeed, of the remaining Zerg defenders in the city, some 85 million of them had concentrated themselves around the reserviors, along with all the Spore and Spine Crawlers that could be spared for the defense in that area. To make things worse, Observer reports had indicated that Zerg Drones had been swarming in the area, rapidly positioning rocks and boulders from the mountains to provide choke points to channel the Protoss into killing zones. The gigantic Exussumers that had been forged were meant to operate in open space environments, and while its sheer size and firepower was meant to compensate against the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Zerg, the lack of maneuvering space would render them ineffective in the assault on the reserviors.

For the Auriga Tribe leader, he was forced to concede that attacking the reserviors and flooding the city was not going to happen. The Zerg had positioned hundreds of Spore Cannons in the area to deal with the Protoss Carriers and Motherships, while the legions of Scourge there, combined with those in the area sectors of Antioch, would overwhelm the Phoenixes.

As such, Urun was now fighting alongside the other Phoenixes to stem the Zerg flyers as the ground Protoss pushed deeper into the city. Selendis and the golden Carriers were providing the ground forces with fire support against the Ultralisks, while the countless Hydralisks tried to shoot the Carriers out of the sky, only to be ripped apart by the waves of Interceptors.

However, the requests for help from the Carriers had been steadily increasing the longer the battle went on. As had been seen all too often, the Protoss capital ships are ineffective against Zerg Scourge, and legions of them had been mobilized to counter this threat. Several Carriers had already gone down as a result of this, and Selendis herself was forced to temporarily fall back to the safety of a Shield Battery to replenish her ship's plasma shields.

With so many Phoenixes being used to hold off the Corruptors, it had left many of them open to attack from the Scourge. Although not as effective against smaller ships, they were used in great effectivness with the Corruptors, the latter covering the Phoenix fighters with their corruption slime to render it more vulnerable, while the former homed in to finish the job. This had left many of the ships to use their overload ability, channeling the pilots' psionic potential to form an energy barrier, where smaller blasts of ion cannon energy fired in multiple directions. However while this proved an adequate defense against the Scourge, once the overload effect dissipates the ship required a few seconds of cooldown before it was able to resume standard operations, and in the midst of battle, many of the Phoenixes were lost to Corruptors this way.

The few Scouts that could be spared from fighting the Mutalisks were brought it to deal with the Corrptors, but they were not as maneuverable and many became the victims of corruption slime attacks before they had a chance to fire their anti-matter missiles. This forced Urun to call the Corsairs away from their disruption web duties to deal with the Scourge, while his Phoenixes continued to hold off the Corruptors, allowing the Scouts to return to fighting the Mutalisks.

On the ground, with the loss of the disruption web assistance, it had initially give the impression to the Zerg that the Protoss warriors would be easier targets. However, this proved to be a grave mistake. With so many Carrier Interceptors swarming across the battlefield, few Zerg units were able to get within range of the Protoss before getting torn apart themselves. Roaches had burrowed underground to bypass this, but their movements had been tracked by Observers, and many were yanked from out of the ground by Zealots and slaughtered. Although the Zerg had moved many Spore Crawlers into position and shot down dozens of Observers, these structures were defenseless against ground units and had to be protected by other Zerg units. They were usually accompanied by Spine Crawlers, but while their impaler tentacle had a longer range than most Protoss warriors, their attacks were nevertheless considered heavy ones, and as such Immortals had been brought in, where their hardened shields protected them as the Zerg defensive structures succumbed to their phase disruptors.

This had prompted the Zerg Brood Lords to attack them, but the giant flyers were slow in comparison to the Mutalisks, and could not generate Broodlings at the rate necessary. As a result, Stalkers were able to blink within range of flyers, and as most concentrated on the Immortals, fell victim to the Stalkers' particle disruptors.

Elsewhere on the ground, Ultralisks were used more and more frequently to deal with the hordes of Zealots flooding in to the city, but it was only delaying the inevitable. Many of the Zealots had Sentries and High Templars as escorts, and in many cases, the Sentries simply boxed them in using their force field ability, while the High Templars released their psionic storms. Although the thick carapace of the beasts were strong enough to survive the attacks, it nevertheless weakened them dramatically, where the Zealots finished the job once the force field had dissipated. In other cases where Sentries ran low on energy for such a task, the High Templars created hallucinations of the Zealots so that the Ultralisks would waste their energy on faked copies. The Zerg had brought in Overseers to counter this, but without any offensive or defensive abilities of their own, they were easy prey for the Sentries' disruption beams. In desperation, many of them spawned Changelings in their defense, but the small Zerg creatures were only meant for espionage, not frontline combat, and as such most fell victim to the Zealots' psionic blades.

From the ground, about the only success the Zerg were having came in the form of Nydus worms. As they were able to pop up from deep underground at almost any given location, none of the Protoss were safe behind the frontlines. In many cases, the Zerg took advantage of this by sending out Queens, supported by Roaches and Hydralisks. While the Roaches and Hydralisks held off the Zealots in the initial attacks, the Queens create Creep Tumors to spread the creep, thus negating their slow speed while off the creep itself. Although their acid spine attacks were not as powerful compared to the needle spines of the Hydralisk, their claw attacks made them very deadly against Zealots. As such, Urun and other Phoenix fighters had been frequently called upon to suspend the Queens in mid-air using their graviton beams, rendering it incapable of anything during that time.

Despite the enormous casualties that has been taking place, the assault on Antioch has been going according to plan. Most of the Zerg on the frontlines has been quickly overwhelmed, and from the Observor reports, it seems more and more Zerg Infestors were being mobilized, their neural parasite tentacles able to take control of Protoss ground and air units alike, turning their own forces against them.

To Urun however, this was an act of desperation, as it was becoming clear that the Zerg were starting to run out of other options. To that end, he had ordered Archons gather at his location. As they were beings of pure energy, the parasite would have no effect on them, and they would deal with the Infestors.

It is only a matter of time, he told himself. Zerg defenses were failing with each passing moment. Soon, Antioch will be free again.

* * *

**Tal'darim Base, Xel'Naga Worldship**

Ulrezaj warped into the area from the Phase Prism, escorted by his fellow Tal'darim warriors. Their leadership branch here had indeed suffered greatly at the hands of Jim Raynor. Despite the advantage of the gravity distortion generators and their effect to kill any non-shielded units that enter the aura, the terran had still managed to fight his way through the Tal'darim forces and acquire the ancient Xel'Naga artifact.

Even more humiliating was the fact that all the prison facilities on the Xel'Naga Worldship had been destroyed. As with the case on Aiur, the Tal'darim here despised the Dark Templar, and thus had them imprisoned. Jim Raynor had apparently freed them all, and the Dark Archon had no doubt that they would have assisted him against the Tal'darim.

As he stepped onto the Xel'Naga Worldship, Ulrezaj was greeted by Tal'darim High Templars, paying their respect to the mighty Xava'tor.

"Greetings, mighty one," a Templar said. "We are honored by your presence among the Tal'darim. I regret that your coming could not have come at brighter times."

"I see that the Tal'darim here remain formidable as ever," Ulrezaj replied. "Despite what had happened prior to my arrival, I am pleased to see you are all still dedicated warriors to the task at hand."

"It was nevertheless insufficient. Despite some of our mightiest forces stationed here, James Raynor was still able to defeat them and reach the Xel'Naga vault. Although he had left the area after acquiring the artifact, his actions have left the Tal'darim here greatly weakened. Much of our fleet has been reduced to ruins. The giant terran ships had played havoc on our Carriers, and many of our Void Rays were unable to do enough damage before they too were destroyed."

The Dark Archon looked around his surroundings, observing the remaining Tal'darim gathering their forces and rebuilding after their defeat recently. Truth be told, there were many times where he wondered if he should have begun his corrupting with the Tal'darim on other worlds instead. While both the Tal'darim on Aiur and the ones on the worldship despised the Dark Templar, it would seem that the latter were far more willing to adjust to situations at hand.

Looking around, he had already seen vast numbers of Stalkers moving about on the ship, and his visit to Bel'Shir he had seen similarly in the Void Rays deployed by the Tal'darim. Both of which were Dark Templar design, something he knew the Tal'darim were fully aware of. The Sundrop substance may have cut off their link to the Khala, but it did not remove their intelligence. Yet it would appear the Tal'darim here were not as corrupted as the ones on Aiur.

This had been reinforced upon his consultation with a Tal'darim Templar on Bel'Shir. He had claimed that the Dark Templar prisoners captured on the Xel'Naga Worldship had been subjected to immense torture for information, and the Tal'darim had learned of the Dark Templar designs of the Stalker, Void Ray, and other Dark Templar weapons of war. Although the hatred for the Dark Templar remained, the Tal'darim had nevertheless concluded that some of the designs may end up having their benefits in the future. It was why the Tal'darim had begun manufacturing such designs and incorporating them into their own forces.

What had greatly impressed even Ulrezaj was the ability to use Stalkers at all. He had seen the use of Dragoons used by the Khalai Protoss, and the Stalker is essentially a Dark Templar variant of almost the same thing. However, while the Dragoon was to be piloted by the Khalai Protoss warriors and fused with the energies of the Khala, the Stalker required the shadow presence of a Dark Templar and infused with the energies of the Void. To that end it had come as a great surprise that the Sundrop substance had allowed the Tal'darim to develop the Nerazim techniques so far that they had been able to develop the ways of the Stalker without having to convert to become Dark Templar themselves.

Although the Tal'darim on Aiur had also developed weapons forged by the Dark Templar, they had been far more reluctant to do so, unwilling to admit the Nerazims created something more capable of fighting the Zerg. On the other hand, the Tal'darim on the worldship seemed to be much more adapt to the situations at hand, and it was clear to Ulrezaj that these would without doubt be a much more effective warband under his command.

"Despite what had happened here, I can see many of your warriors are still ready to take up the fight," the Dark Archon commented.

"It will not be easy, great Xava'tor. Our leadership had suffered a severe blow here. When Jim Raynor attacked the Xel'naga vessel, he also killed our executor, Nyon. He had personally led the attack against the terran thieves with his Mothership, but it had been shot down by the terran ships. Afterwards, we had tried to reach out to other Tal'darim on other worlds for assistance, but none of them were able to reach the worldship in time before the terrans had left. As for the Mothership itself, we were able to salvage it, but no one aboard survived."

"I will need your assistance in my endeavors, my brothers," Ulrezaj replied. "During such times, I will lead you."

The High Templar bowed in respect. "We shall aid you in any way you see fit, great one. Once the Mothership repairs are complete, it will be yours to command."

"I have gathered the Tal'darim from Bel'Shir to aid me in my quests. It is my hope that you will come with me to other worlds inhabited by the Tal'darim. Together, we must unite against our enemies."

"We will do as you command, Xava'tor," the High Templar's eyes then glowed, as energy poured into his Khaydarin Amulet. Within moments, other Tal'darim warriors had gathered around Ulrezaj.

"I have sent your will to all of the Tal'darim on the Xel'Naga Worldship. They all pledge their alliance to you."

"My thanks, my brothers," Ulrezaj stated. "Join me in my quest to gather the Tal'darim from the other worlds, and together we will bring down our enemies together."

* * *

**Author's Note: All right, for those of you who had read the Starcraft novels regarding the Tal'darim, you would have known that they despise the Dark Templar. If so, then I'm sure many of you would have raised the question as to why the Tal'darim forces in Wings of Liberty have access to Stalkers and Void Rays, as they are of Dark Templar design.**

**This chapter is to shed some light on that issue, because I didn't want to make it sound like they had access to them simply due to gameplay mechanics. Rather, it was more to show that the Tal'darim may be fanatical, but they're not stupid. And they're also willing to swallow their pride and admit in situations where they feel Dark Templar technology is superior to their own. As such, it would be better off replicate that technology rather than adhere to their original traditions.**

**The presence of so many Tal'darim still on the Xel'Naga Worldship is also not a coincidence. This is their leadership HQ, and thus would have the strongest forces positioned here. You can't just expect Raynor and his Raiders, even with BattleCruiser schematics, to just steamroll right over them.**

**This is also the reason why I had the Tal'darim Mothership survive the battle to an extent. The Mothership is the pinnacle of Protoss technology, and are now the new command ships for the Protoss fleet. The Protoss Carriers have weapons that can burn entire planet surfaces to ashes, and the Mothership is supposed to be even stronger than that, if you recall their Planet Cracker ability (though they removed this in the game).  
**

**By contrast, the Yamato Gun of the BattleCruiser only has the effect of a tactical nuclear explosion and is much less powerful. Thus you can't just expect a couple of Yamato blasts from the BattleCruisers to blow the Tal'darim Mothership to smithereens, it's just not going to happen.**

**Anyways that's enough out of me. I'll try to write up the next chapter as soon as I can and try to update faster. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time.  
**


	33. Chapter 33

**Author's Note: Everyone, the next chapter is here! I know, I know, it still took 12 days to write this, but it hasn't exactly been easy on my end. The lack of employment, along with issues in the family, well let's just say it's left me severely depressed about a lot of things. And as we all know, depression is not exactly a good inspiration to write.**

**I will still do my best to try and update this fic as quickly as I can though. Right now I have no intention of giving up on this fic, so don't expect me to suddenly say this fic will go on hiatus or anything like that.**

**This will more than likely be the last update before Blizzcon 2011, scheduled to take place on Oct 21. Only after that will we get some more info about Heart of the Swarm, though the latest interviews have shown Blizzard does not seem to have the slightest clue when it's going to be finished.**

**As with the info about the game Blizzard released at the end of May, if there is anything they reveal that might be compatible with my fic, I will do my best to try and fit it into the fic itself.**

* * *

Chapter 33

**High Orbit Over Bel'Shir**

Madison knew his emperor was not pleased with the results of what had happened on Bel'Shir. Although his face did not show it, the general knew Mengsk was enraged at the news.

"General, you should know better than to contact me in the event of mission failure," Mengsk said angrily. "I sent you to Bel'Shir to collect the terrazine gas, and you retreat back to your BattleCruiser without a single drop?"

"With all due respect sir, once that Protoss Archon entered the base, everything changed. Whatever that thing is, nothing my boys threw at it could kill it. Hell, it took the artillery barrages of the Thors just to prevent it from smashing the base perimeter down and killing everyone inside!"

"I don't need your excuses, general. You were sent on a simple resource collecting mission, and you failed."

"You had expected me to succeed without resorting to violence at all. Did you ever consider the possibility that violence was inevitable?"

"Of course I did," Mengsk replied over the communicator. "I reinforced your numbers after Redstone III, remember?"

"It wasn't enough against the Protoss," Madison countered. "Their technology is superior to ours. Add in the fact that they also had the numbers on their side, the outcome of the battle was decided before it even began. Court martial me if you like, but if I hadn't given the order to evacuate there'd be no one left to tell you the mission was a failure."

"Fine, I'll accept that," Mengsk said. "Even I can't expect you to prevail in the absence of material strength. But nevertheless the terrazine is necessary to ensure the Dominion is brought back together again."

"Sir, I may have agreed to the missions at Redstone III and Bel'Shir, but I did so because I wanted to prove the Dominion military is not as incompetent as the media portrayed us as. After all the casualties my boys have suffered, along with the mercenaries recruited, well let's just say they're in no position to fight again."

"They have your leadership, general. You're the type who inspires confidence among them."

"They trust me because I saved their lives, and even then it was only just barely. Hell, I had to pull engineers and construction workers off their duties and give them firearms to make up for the losses suffered when I landed on Bel'Shir! Without them I couldn't have even made the evacuation work!"

"Either way you got them out, so that means they're available to you to go down there and try again."

Madison stared at his emperor on the screen. "Sir, did you not listen to the report I gave you? We got hammered down there! Going down there a second time would be suicide! We wouldn't even have the element of surprise on our side anymore!"

"You also said your scouts had detected large numbers of Protoss ships leaving the moon," Mengsk replied. "Who's to say they didn't leave the area where all the terrazine gas is located after they drove you off?"

"None of my boys are going to want to take that chance. What if you're wrong?"

"We can debate that all day, or you can at least send some scout ships down there and make a quick fly by. If I'm wrong, you can tell me so, and I'll send you more reinforcements so you can take the terrazine by force."

"I don't see how that's possible regardless who's right here," Madison pointed out. "Orbital scans had detected the Protoss were sealing up the terrazine altars. Not sure how exactly they did it, my scouts said it had something to do with the weird jewel crystals on the altar towers. But regardless, whatever they did, it's beyond the comprehension of terran technology."

"They'll have to release that seal in time, general. You said it yourself the terrazine is considered sacred to the Protoss as well. With you off their planet, you really think they're going to keep the seal on indefinitely?"

Madison sighed. "My boys are going to be demanding answers why they're risking their necks for doing this, and there's no way I can use the excuse of telling them I'm just under orders for it. When you're dealing with casualties this bad, they're going to demand better answers, instead of just being kept in the dark."

"Fine, general. Tell your boys once they retrieve the terrazine, I'll let them in on more of the picture of my plans for reestablishing control."

* * *

**Dylarian Shipyards**

General Mansfield looked out of the windows of his headquarters building in the Dylarian Shipyards. The organizing of the Dominion Fleet was progressing quite well as of late. Despite the fact that half the fleet had been acquired by Mengsk's son Valerian, and without his father's approval for that matter, the fleet remained had remained strong. Of course one might question their true strength as the Zerg invasion had not reached here, but the general knew this orbital complex had enough power to give any invader total hell if they tried to assault it.

Even without the planetary defenses, ever since the Zerg invasion began the shipyards had housed no less than 60 percent of the entire Dominion Armada. Enormous efforts of money and material had been poured into the shipyard's reconstruction, a grim reminder of the raid by the UED 4 years ago during the Brood War and had the entire complex utterly destroyed. By the end of the conflict, the Dominion was in no position to conduct offensive or defensive operations of any scale, but for some odd reason the Zerg simply disappeared from sight, allowing the fleet to be rebuilt.

Mansfield himself was not pleased with the way the situation was looking for the Dominion right now, he hadn't been ever since the Zerg invasion began. He was among the Dominion officers who protested against Mengsk withdrawing the fleet to the core worlds and the Dylarian Shipyards, leaving the fringe worlds to fend for themselves. Nevertheless, he eventually conceded that the Dominion did not have overwhelming numbers in the sense the Zerg do, and therefore if spread too thinly, would be unsuccessful in offensive operations against the swarm.

Now, after what Raynor had pulled off on Korhal and the public unrest across the Dominion worlds, Mansfield knew that the emperor would need the actions of the Dominion Fleet to count more than ever. However Valerian's actions had greatly weakened the fleet's strength at the shipyards, and thus orders were issued accordingly: the construction of the Dominion ships here was to be given top priority to make up for the losses on Valerian's crazy adventure.

Of course, the general had been astonished to hear the outcome on Char had actually turned out to be successful. Even though he himself had wanted to drive the Zerg back across the sector, he did not believe it was possible to launch a successful invasion on the Zerg's base of operations in the Koprulu Sector. To make matters worse, he had been under the belief that once the temporary alliance with Raynor was over, Warfield would return to the Dominion with the invasion fleet. Instead, he had joined the rebel's cause, and this made it that much harder to replace the losses at the shipyards.

Nevertheless, the Dylarian Shipyards is the ultimate fortress of Dominion strength. While the fleet strength right now was still insufficient for large scale offensive operations for prolonged periods, it was more than enough in terms of defending itself. Mansfield saw the media reports and of the appalling losses suffered on Char, which meant even if Raynor was crazy enough to mount a suicidal offensive on the shipyards, the result would be total annihilation for his forces, while only able to inflict moderate damage to the Dominion forces here.

For that reason, the general felt the reason for the increased production of the Dominion ships is due to the necessity of world reclamation from the Zerg. There were already reports over the media from Agrian colonists praising Raynor for his actions in purging the Zerg from their world, allowing them to return home, and this in turn was humiliating the Dominion even more, as the media branches are continuing to portray the Dominion fleet as utterly ineffective when it came to taking action, and are incapable of protection anyone but themselves.

Yet Mansfield knew otherwise, it's just that the fleet has yet to have a chance to prove it, and time is starting to run out. Mengsk had assured him that the Dominion will take the fight to the Zerg once the buildup is complete, and the general himself was eager for action.

It was exactly the reason why Dominion activity had increased dramatically their operations on Brontes II. Once a core world of the Confederacy, the planet was now a giant junkyard, littered with the remains of vehicles, ships, buildings, orbital platforms, and just about any other type of equipment a person can name. They had come from terran factions of all over: the Confederacy, the Umojan Protectorate, the Kel-Morian Combine, and even the remnants of the UED had their remains all stored there.

However, as the old saying goes: one man's trash is another man's treasure. It didn't take too long before the Dominion concluded that while the hundreds of quadrillions of tons of scrap contained outdated equipment, most of it could be sent to the Dominion recycling plants. From there, it could be sent to the processing plants where the material was used to build up the Dominion's military strength. Indeed, Dominion efforts had increased exponentially on Brontes II after the news of the Zerg invasion. Prior to it, the cargo ships were only transporting about 10 million tons of supplies per week for their purposes. When the news of the invasion was received, activity had increased to almost 16 million tons per day.

Even so, the Dominion had assigned Brontes II as a low priority world, and despite its role as a salvage yard, the Dominion military had given very little thought about providing better protection for the cargo ship transports. Over the years, it had led to numerous cases of raiders and pirates, though they were usually just a nuisance and not a threat.

Nevertheless, Mengsk had not been blind to threat of the Zerg during the 4 years of peace after the Brood War. Although not as top priority, efforts had been made to build recycling plants and processing facilities using the very scrap in the junkyards on Brontes II. Everyone in the Dominion knew that as long as the Zerg had the numbers on their side, they would remain a severe threat no matter how many of them the military killed.

Thus the facilities on Brontes II were part of an attempt to increase the output of the Dominion military. However, as everything in the facilities came from salvaged parts, they were of a lower quality compared to the ones built on the Dominion core worlds and took somewhat longer to build. Nevertheless, only months prior to the Zerg invasion, these facilities had become operational, and despite the Zerg defeat on Char, the Dominion industrialists and engineers on the planet were still working around the clock to produce the ships, vehicles, weapons, and other equipment for the Dominion, many of them loaded onto cargo ships and sent directly to the Dylarian Shipyards.

To that end, there had been much stress placed on the ammunition factories at the orbital complex, as the scrap yards on Brontes II did not have an excess of that when the Dominion industrials searched for salvageable parts. Indeed, with so many ships and vehicles being produced from the Dominion core worlds and sent to the shipyards, the facilities were gradually becoming overwhelmed, unable to produce the required ammunition to go with the imports fast enough. General Mansfield had made repeated requests for the core worlds to also increase their output on munitions so they could keep pace with weapons production, but this was simply not possible in the case with Brontes II. As such, almost 60 percent of the total ammunition facilities at the Dylarian Shipyards were devoted to supplying munitions there, while a further 30 percent were devoted to ionized plasma production for the shipyards' ultimate defense weapons: the Ion Cannons.

They were among the pinnacle of Dominion engineering, although they had been assisted by Raynor in that aspect, ironically enough. When the rebel commander had broken away from Mengsk, the emperor had intended to forbid his escape by using the Ion Cannon. Unfortunately, Raynor had destroyed it, and thus he and his bandits were able to escape Tarsonis. However after the formation of the Terran Dominion, Mengsk had ordered engineering teams back to Tarsonis immediately, despite the continued fighting between Protoss and Zerg forces battling across the planet. It had been his hope that the Ion Cannon the Confederacy had built could be repaired and brought to serve the Dominion, but Raynor's actions had made that impossible. However, enough had been salvaged in order reverse engineer a copy, and Mengsk had made huge efforts ever since for just that.

This of course had been kept in utter secrecy, as Raynor had destroyed the Confederate Ion Cannon before it even had a chance to fire. As such, no one knew the extent of its destructive power. Although construction technology had evolved greatly over the past 4 years, there had remained much hesitation regarding the testing of the newly constructed Ion Cannons, some of the largest of them positioned right here in the Dylarian Shipyards.

Mansfield looked out towards the smaller orbital platforms. The shipyards had a total of 5 Ion Cannons, and each of them were positioned on a separate platform, spread across shipyard perimeter to provide their defensive capabilities to the Dominion military here. In a pinch, the platforms could also be moved about much more quickly compared to the huge construction platforms the shipyards contained. Although it seems unlikely that any invading force would be foolish enough to group all their ships together, making it an ideal Ion Cannon target, that possibility was never factored out, and so Dominion engineers were trained to position the Ion Cannon platforms together and fire in the same direction in the case of such an event.

Although they had never once seen action, Mansfield knew the Ion Cannons were a force to be reckoned with. At some 3500 feet long and 700 feet tall, these were smaller in comparison to the Ion Cannon built by the Confederacy. Nevertheless, they were certainly cheaper to build, and thus Mengsk had ordered them into production once his engineers concluded it was theoretically possible to reverse engineer the Confederate Ion Cannon.

So far the Ion Cannons have only fired in their test firing trials, but they had proven themselves more than capable of dealing with just about any invader who is foolish enough to attack the Dylarian Shipyards. From the scrapyards on Brontes II, the Dominion salvage teams had managed to put together pieces of the Leviathan-Class BattleCruisers, ships that had been in service since before even the Guild Wars. Although greatly inferior to the Minotaur-Class BattleCruisers the Dominion use today, the aging ships were still used for target practice by the Dominion military. Some of them had been restored to be used as targets for the Ion Cannons, and the results had lived up to the expectations when some Dominion generals questioned if they were capable of defending entire worlds as the Confederacy intended with their Ion Cannon.

A single shot from just one of those Ion Cannons had produced more carnage than most people had expected. A Leviathan-Class BattleCruiser didn't stand a chance. In fact entire groups of them stood no chance, as a single volley was capable of destroying more than 20 of such BattleCruisers. Based off that, most Dominion engineers calculated that when fired directly against a single BattleCruiser, the firepower of the Ion Cannon would blow it to smithereens. Mengsk had judged this to be the perfect weapon for defending the Dylarian Shipyards, and great efforts were made to produce more of them here.

However, Mansfield knew that producing the weapon is one thing, using it is quite another. The power requirements for the Ion Cannons were astronomical, and unlike factories and support facilities at the Dylarian Shipyards, each of the 5 Ion Cannons required its own power generator. This meant it was impossible to produce large quantities of Ion Cannons to be ringed around the complex itself and have them all functional at the same time, so importance was stressed upon Dominion ships to defend the Ion Cannons. The early firing tests had also shown that due to the tremendous energy the Ion Cannons generate, they also had an extended cool-down cycle. While the Dominion designs were superior to the Confederate design in that the cannons are able to fire off their deadly volley once every 10 minutes compared to every hour with the case of the Confederate Ion Cannon, the fact remained that during the cool-down cycle the Ion Cannons are vulnerable to attack. Although it was unlikely any invading fleet would still be willing to take up the fight after witnessing their destructive power, that possibility could not be factored out.

This of course produced much resentment towards the Dominion Viking, Banshee, and Wraith pilots assigned to defend the Ion Cannons. Unlike rockets, the ionized plasma from the Ion Cannons could not be programmed. Thus upon firing, it was impossible for the Ion Cannons to distinguish friend or foe, as a single volley would destroy everything unlucky enough to get in its path. While the Dominion has the strongest fleet in the sector, collateral damage was still something that should be avoided if possible.

As such, efforts fell to the planetary defenses on Dylar IV. Mengsk had been dissatisfied when word from the armaments industry reached him in that building these Ion Cannons proved to be extremely expensive and therefore could not be done on a mass scale. However the Dominion Emperor's obsession with these weapons remained, and orders were instead issued to build them on a smaller scale if it could be produced in large numbers. This had led to an anti-orbital version of the Ion Cannon, some of which were manufactured right here in the shipyards themselves, before being sent down to the planet itself. Similar to the Zerg Spore Cannons that the Dominion had been aware of a few years before and were capable of destroying capital ships from orbit, Mengsk ordered that the Dominion develop a cannon of similar ability.

Although Mansfield's post was the Dylarian Shipyards defenses, he had been kept informed of development of the defenses on Dylar IV itself. Given the vast military strength within the shipyards themselves, there was every bit the possibility that whoever was foolish enough to attack Dylar IV would bypass the shipyards completely and go down to the planet itself. Although the anti-orbital Ion Cannon Defense System should be sufficient to deal with any threats in that aspect, the fact remained that these cannons were only meant to deal with ships hanging in orbit, as well as battle-groups attempting to enter the atmosphere. If the battle-groups were able to land however, then the cannons would become defenseless. It had left the need of a planetary garrison to be greatly desired, and the strength of the Dominion garrison currently stationed on Dylar IV was greatly understrength. Of course, the officers down there were not worried, as they were confident that anyone who is stupid enough to attack Dylar IV would face the might of the Dominion Armada, and none would be able to reach the planet's surface.

Mansfield, however, was still somewhat skeptical. All of the Dominion ships were useless without a fuel source for their engines and energy reactors. So far, the fleet's main source of vespene gas came from the huge Dylar IV Space Station, almost as large and built next to the Dylarian Shipyards as a refueling depot for the Dominion Armada. Although stocks of vespene were also housed in the shipyards themselves, their levels were insufficient to allow the fleet to conduct large scale military operations. Indeed, when Valerian had acquired half the Dominion fleet for the invasion of Char, the Dominion ships had taken almost a third of the total vespene supply at the refueling station.

Unlike the shipyards, the Dylar IV Space Station was much less heavily defended, and more reliant on distress calls to the shipyards in times of need. Most of the Dominion efforts to better protect the station itself had been in the form of camouflage and deception, building dummy installations over the space station to make the Dominion's enemies seem the whole facility was nothing more than a minor scrap station, its cargo ships running back and forth to the shipyards containing merely spare parts for the Dominion ships. The same was true of the cargo and tanker ships bound to the station from Brontes IV, the facility's primary source of vespene gas. As Brontes IV and Brontes II were located relatively close to each other and the latter is a military scrapyard, it would be easy for one to mistake it for the other.

Nevertheless, the station itself was the shipyards' Achilles heel. The vespene stocks at the shipyards themselves were only sufficient for defense, and just barely enough for military operations down on Dylar IV itself should it get attacked. Although efforts had been made to disguise the Dylar IV Space Station into something else and thus far no one has discovered its true purpose, the fact remained that no plans had ever been made for an alternative source of vespene to supply the fleet in the event the station itself was cut off or destroyed. Mansfield had known of this weakness shortly after he had taken up his post at the shipyards when the Zerg invasion began, but had been continuously overruled by his superiors when he had requested better protection for the station itself.

As such, he could only hope that the Dominion's enemies will be unable to see the importance of the station if the Dylarian Shipyards were ever attacked. The station's walls were all scan-shielded, as were the cargo and tanker ships leaving the facility to the shipyards, but that didn't mean no one would simply decide to blast their way into the station to find out what it contained. Of course, that would require someone to actually be crazy enough to attack Dylar IV, and the Dominion made little attempt to hide their military strength there.

For himself, Mansfield continued to observe as the Dominion buildup continued in the shipyards. Mengsk had yet to have given him a specific time on when the Dominion forces will be moving out Dylar IV to deal with the Zerg infestation on the other worlds, but the general knew that Mengsk wouldn't abandon them to the Zerg. The news branches are still portraying him as a coward who had abandoned the people he had sworn to protect, and Jim Raynor has the people's savior, so it was obvious that action had to be taken to rectify this.

* * *

**New Folsom**

Jim walked along the New Folsom roads of the prison complex with a group of scientists and engineers. When the prisons were liberated, the Raiders had moved into the complex. Some of them moved the surviving Dominion troops into prison cells, while others went to seize the munitions factories and processing centers for the neosteel production. As Nova had predicted, most of the former were crammed full of munitions meant to supply the Dominion fleet, and that now fell into the Raiders' hands.

The Dominion cargo ships that had arrived only hours ago to pick up the weapons and ammunition were forced to surrender, and all of their transports were now being loaded into the Minotaur-Class BattleCruisers. The crews on the other hand were not pressed into the Raiders, but were rather given a choice in the matter of whether they wanted to join or not. Should they choose the latter, they would simply to allowed to stay on New Folsom, although not in prison cells, until the next transport ships arrived, where they would be picked up and returned to the Dominion.

Of course, the crews weren't stupid. They knew that choosing that option would result in certain execution by Mengsk's hands, so all of them chose to join the Raiders as well. Most knew it was pointless try and play the role of the inside man in acquiring intelligence for the Dominion on the Raiders' status, Jim had made it clear that he had factored in the possibility of rallying Dominion troops to his cause ever since the media broadcasts on Korhal had caused riots and revolts across the Dominion worlds. He knew that not everyone would show blind loyalty towards Mengsk, but Jim knew that these riots also allowed the possibility that the emperor would send agents to infiltrate his Raiders. As such, he had warned the cargo crews that they would be subjected to a mind check by his ghosts to ensure there would be acts of double-cross.

Virtually all of the members willingly agreed to this, most likely because they knew Nova was a Raider now, and even if by some miracle they could fool the other ghosts, there was no way to fool her.

To some extent Jim felt guilty about the mind checks. While he knew it was necessary, it also set the impression that everyone in the Dominion is essentially one of Mengsk's slaves, incapable of being reasoned with or influenced by an outside source. The scientists and engineers he was walking along with right now he was much more hesitant on the mind checks, as many of them only did exactly why he did when he began this revolution: protect terran lives.

"We're glad for your help, Commander Raynor," one of the scientists said. "New Folsom's prisoner treatment was absolutely horrible. If it weren't for our technical knowledge, we'd be long dead."

"It just shows the corruption of the Dominion," Jim replied. "It's far from the paradise your emperor claimed it to be."

"Many of us were skeptical of the emperor's claims that you're just some mercenary who's only purpose is to spread havoc across the sector, although none of us could really do anything about it."

"I only wanted people to live free, not enslave them like Mengsk did."

"Then why bring the former Queen of Blades along for your revolution? Not all of us are blind to that, you know. Some of us _do_ know that the Queen of Blades was once the ghost Sarah Kerrigan. We heard the news about what happened on Char, but it just seems wrong."

"What you saw of her as the Queen of Blades was nothing more than the Zerg working through her against her will," Jim explained. "That influence is gone now, and Sarah is fighting for the same cause I am when she and I first met: restoring freedom to the Koprulu Sector. I know you don't trust her, but she helped my boys bust this prison complex wide open. If it weren't for her you'd still all be locked up in your cages right now, at least give her that benefit of the doubt."

"We are, commander. Most of the other prisoners are already praising her for what she did today, although they weren't aware with her affiliation with the Zerg."

Jim shook his head. It seems like people were never going to let this matter go no matter how much Sarah tried to make up for everything she did, when it wasn't even her fault in the first place. "Sarah called me down here because after busting the higher ranking prisoner cells open, some of you had informed her of an underground production facility beneath the prison complex, and she wanted me here to see it for myself."

"That's where we're taking you right now, sir. The ships and vehicles you've seen on the surface only required the knowledge of a few scientists and engineers, not dozens of us. When you see the underground factory, you'll see what Mengsk had really kept us here for."

* * *

**Author's Note: All right, so like with Qwerty-Man's fic "Flight to Freedom", I too have included the shipyards as the Dominion's ultimate bastion and all that. Don't worry though, I have a slightly different idea about what will eventually take place here.**

**Furthermore, what you have seen here is only a teaser of what will eventually shift back to the shipyards once more. That won't be happening for many, many, many more chapters, and when it does I'm sure you'll want to come back to this chapter to re-check what I had written on the shipyards in the first place.**

**Well anyways, I hope you guys have enjoyed this recent chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**


	34. Chapter 34

**Author's Note: All right everyone, now that Blizzcon has ended, I decided it's time for another chapter. For those of you who remember the secret Wings of Liberty mission "Piercing the Shroud", this chapter is meant to explain a little bit more of what took place there.**

**Personally I disliked the fact the whole installation got trashed and all the lab secrets went with it without any explanation whatsoever, usually you'd want more answers than that.**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

**Please read and review!  
**

* * *

Chapter 34

**Aiur**

"What treachery is this, Felanis?" A Tal'darim Templar demanded angrily. "You had forged the Tal'darim specifically to be separate from the Protoss who had betrayed us. Why do you ask us to join hands with them?"

"It is true that we were among the Protoss who had remained on Aiur after this world had been overrun by the Zerg," Felanis replied. "But remember, in times of war, not everyone can be saved. There would inevitably be the ones who will be left behind."

"They had abandoned us here on Aiur! They left us to fend for ourselves against countless Zerg, while they sought their own haven with the Dark Templar!"

"We had never planned to abandon you," Artanis explained. "It had always been our intention to retake this world from the Zerg one day, and that is happening as we speak. By now, the Zerg are being eradicated from Aiur, and the world will be purified once again."

"Aiur will never be pure as long as the Daelaam Protoss exist. You betrayed your own kind when you sided with the Dark Templar. To make matters worse, you are attempting to unite all of the Khalai Protoss with them. Have you completely forgotten that they had refused to embrace the Khala as we had? What makes you think we would want to have anything to do with those so devoid of the light of the Khala?"

"Have you not seen with your own eyes of the very characteristics of the Tal'darim, young Templar?" Zeratul pointed out. "You know that Felanis had formed the Tal'darim to despise the Dark Templar kind such as myself, yet you also heard what he had just told you about the truth of you Xava'tor was in reality a Nerazim. You claimed to hate our kind so much, yet in reality, you had worshipped one."

"This means that our leader Felanis is a traitor to the very foundations of the Tal'darim!"

"The Sundrop substance has corrupted you, just as it had corrupted myself. Ulrezaj knew I would eventually know of his true identity, so I was given greater amounts of it so that I wouldn't turn against him when I know the truth," Felanis explained. "To that end, Alzadar had done the right thing to turn members of the Tal'darim against me. We never should have been loyal to Ulrezaj after everything he put us through. But the effects of Sundrop are not irreversible, and it is possible for you to reestablish your link to the Khala once more."

"Alzadar had his addiction to it severed by the Shel'na Kryhas," Artanis explained. "And the Daelaam Protoss can provide proof that we are able to do similarly for other Tal'darim brethren, the warriors Vartanil and Korlendir among them."

"You must understand that the Sundrop substance is what Ulrezaj used to ensure our loyalty to them," Felanis added. "You have been subjected to greater amounts than others have, and that is why I know you are so untrusting of Daelaam Protoss here. But Artanis had provided me with proof that of the Tal'darim who had sided with Alzadar, some of them were able to escape through the once functional Xel'Naga Warp Gate on Aiur to Shakuras, the Dark Templar homeworld, after Ulrezaj and the Zerg had attacked the ancient Xel'Naga Caverns that the Tal'darim had been ordered to protect. Of the Tal'darim that reached the safety of Shakuras, many of them had their link to the Khala restored, and their loyalty to Ulrezaj completely severed."

"The Sundrop substance was designed to make you fearful and distressed, the Daelaam Protoss had seen that in the Tal'darim we had treated," Artanis explained. "When they had their linkage restored, many of them had explained that the Protoss of the Shel'nas Kryhas had discovered the same thing."

"We know the Tal'darim had been created from that tribe," Zeratul said. "I had returned to Aiur some time ago, with Hierarch Artanis and Executor Selendis."

"It just shows your unwillingness to save your people, dark one," the Tal'darim Templar seethed. "You left the Shel'nas Kryhas to their fate on Aiur because you felt they could not survive with the Zerg infesting this world, and therefore you had abandoned the Tal'darim to the same fate."

"It was Ulrezaj that had turned us against our Shel'nas Kryhas brethren," Felanis said. "When Alzadar turned some of us against him, the Shel'nas Kryhas still chose to trust us, allying with us and sacrificed themselves to allow some of the Tal'darim to escape to Shakuras."

"The Shel'nas Kryhas were inferior to the Tal'darim in the art of combat! We had far greater success against the Zerg infesting our world than they ever did!"

"That may well be," Artanis replied. "But it takes more than battle alone to define the Protoss, you know this. Once Aiur is cleansed of the Zerg, we will be able to take first steps in rebuilding our civilization."

"Do you believe us for fools? We shall never join the Protoss who had so openly sided with the Nerazims!"

The Hierarch clenched his fists in frustration. Felanis wasn't lying when he said how difficult it would be for the Tal'darim survivors on Aiur to join hands with the Protoss. Although no fire had been exchanged between his protectorate guards and the Tal'darim warriors at the Tal'darim base, there had been only minor signs of success of the Protoss fanatics coming to terms.

"If you will not join hands with us, we will not force you to," Zeratul said. "But consider this: despite the vast numbers of Zerg we have killed on Aiur, hundreds of millions still remain. You know that no matter how strong each individual Tal'darim warrior is, he cannot prevail indefinitely against an unlimited number of Zerg attacks. You are right to hate us for abandoning you on Aiur when we could have saved you, but we are trying to make up for our mistakes in the past now."

"Then what are you asking of us?"

"Even if you hate the Khalai Protoss for joining hands with my brethren, we all face the Zerg as our enemy on Aiur. Every Protoss warrior is needed in the reclamation of our world. The less we fight each other over ancient traditions, the faster Aiur can be restored. If the Tal'darim are not willing to join with us, at least consider a temporary cease to hostilities between our own kind. You are the largest group of Tal'darim on Aiur that we have found, and it is our hope that you will at least accept a temporary truce while we all purge the Zerg from our world."

"You speak the truth about the Zerg, Zeratul. We have known for some time that it was necessary to unite the individual Tal'darim tribes on the planet in the event the Zerg decide to wipe us out. They are clearly a greater threat to us right now, so we will honor this request for the time being. Our scouts will send word of this to the other Tal'darim tribes on Aiur."

Artanis watched as the Tal'darim warriors turned away from them and returned to their base, before turning to Zeratul. "It did not go well as I had hoped, my friend."

"It was too much to have believed the Tal'darim would have joined us at the first persuasion," the dark prelate answered. "We have nevertheless achieved a starting step though, as we no longer need to fight our own brethren while we scour our world of the Zerg."

* * *

**New Folsom**

Even before Jim reached his destination to the underground factory on New Folsom, there were already the signs of the Dominion's brutality towards its prisoners. As he was walking down the tunnel, descending deeper and deeper underground, there were cases where the stench of the dead reached his nostrils. Warfield had informed him that prisoners were worked to death to produce the Dominion's weapons of destruction, but being so close to actually experiencing it was quite another matter altogether.

It had only increased the urgency that Mengsk needs to go as soon as possible, and the commander had every intention to return his focus to the revolution once he was done helping the Protoss on Aiur.

By the time he reached the factory entrance with the other scientists and engineers, he found Sarah already waiting there for him, along with even more scientists and engineers. Apparently whatever Mengsk was planning here, it required a bigger development team than he had expected.

"Commander Raynor," one of them greeted. "I'm Dr. Saunders, lead scientist for the secret projects that the Dominion have been developing here. We're thankful for your rescue."

"There's no need for the formalities," Jim replied. "This place had been one of the more brutal aspects of the Dominion, and it had always been my intention to come here and bust the cages open."

"Your timing couldn't have been better. Colonel Winters treated the prisoners here horribly, refusing to show even the most basic humanity towards them. Many of them he deliberately starved to death simply for his own sadistic pleasure."

"He got his end of the stick," Sarah said. "He won't be able to chew solid food for a long time to come after I broke his jaw, along with some of his other limbs. The guy will have all the time to think that over while he rots in a cell, waiting for the next Dominion ship to come, and then face Mengsk's judgment for his failure."

"This is why I hope you're willing to trust her," Jim said. "She may have done terrible things as the Queen of Blades, but that influence is gone now, and she's not a threat to you anymore."

"We're willing to," Saunders replied. "She had personally freed us from our cells, and most of the prisoners have praised her for such heroic actions."

"Good, then if you please, open the factory door. Sarah told me you were working on some Dominion project that involved Zerg biology and Protoss technology, so I want to see what it is."

Saunders gestured to a nearby scientist, and he strolled over to the console next to the door. "It's not anything gruesome or grotesque, if that's what you're worried about. It was meant to find a way to save the lives of Dominion soldiers out on the battlefield."

Slowly, the giant metal doors opened, revealing a vast open space in front of Jim and Sarah. As the lights turned on, Jim was at a loss for words.

Before him stood the assembled figures of thousands of warbots. Although smaller in comparison to the Thor walkers and the A.R.E.S. warbots, Raynor knew that looks could always be deceiving.

Even Sarah looked impressed at the ingenuity of these machines. She had grown to respect the power of the warbots that had been used against her on Char. Though not as fast or agile as the Roaches or Hydralisks, the Thors had played their part in defending the Xel'Naga artifact against her at the primary hive cluster. She had personally went down to the terran base to claim the artifact herself, but the continuous artillery barrages from the walkers eventually forced her back.

"We had known of the superiority of Protoss technology compared to our own, as well as the superiority of the Zerg physiology," Dr. Saunders explained. "Although the Dominion isn't really at war with the Protoss, we're clearly not on friendly terms with them. Mengsk had wanted weapons to be developed to even out the odds in the case war does break out with them."

"You aren't the only ones," Jim said. "Stetmann was trying to do the same thing for weapon systems had tactics for the Raiders."

"We know of Egon Stetmann. He was one of the scientists who worked for the Dominion on Tyrador III, also to incorporate Protoss technology into Dominion weapons. Apparently he turned away from them."

"Well obviously," Jim scoffed. "Stetmann found out those implants were being forcibly put into prisoners right here in New Folsom, you really think he was just going to ignore it?"

"Of course not, and this is why Mengsk eventually changed the nature of future projects. He didn't want to lose any more scientific minds, so the warbots you see here are completely mechanical."

Jim nodded. It was similar to when he had fought alongside the Protoss a few years back, and he had seen how they relied on numbers of war machines to avoid the loss of Protoss life.

"The difference though, is that while we may not be in the class as Stetmann in terms of technical knowledge and ingenuity, we had a major factor on our side that your Raiders didn't: the resource factor. I'm sure Stetmann would have been able to produce far more complex things to help you in the invasion had he had that."

"What I don't understand is how this project of yours was kept under wraps the whole time," Raynor said, looking at the warbots. "These are clearly very impressive feats of engineering you got here, how could not even the rumors of it have leaked out?"

"Like the Thor which had been developing since the end of the Brood War, the Dominion had intended to build special versions of them, bigger and stronger, to support them on the frontlines. This has been under the name Project Thor, but its mention had also attracted the attention of the Dominion's enemies, and that was how the Umojan Protectorate had learned of the Odin heavy walker was being developed at the Simonson Munitions Factory on Korhal. It was why the Odin had to be transferred to the Valhalla Research Center."

"And it did them squat," Sarah said. "For all the Dominion's defenses, Jim was able to steal the Odin from them anyway."

"True, but the point is after the discovery of the Odin's existence, Mengsk specifically ordered that the warbot projects done here on New Folsom was not to be given a project name at all," Dr. Saunders replied. "This obviously made it difficult for people to know what we're talking about at times, but it certainly decreased the risk of security leaks to the Dominion's enemies."

"So how exactly are these warbots supposed to have incorporated Zerg biology and Protoss technology?" Jim asked.

"What you may not have known is that some of the scientists you see here were part of the research team on Castanar. Mengsk's order to terminate everyone who ever worked there was only partially true. In reality he had planned to use this liquidation as a cover up, so that the ones who he felt were too valuable to be killed were transported elsewhere."

Jim rubbed his chin, beginning to understand. "So some of the scientists and engineers here were involved in the development of the secret weapons I had encountered in that lab?"

"Those weapons had been around before that Protoss-Zerg hybrid was transferred to the installation," Saunders assured. "My team was appalled to see such a thing, but we at least didn't have to be part of the team in trying to replicate it. Mengsk knew how dangerous that creature would be if it got loose, so my team had been ordered to build special weapons to put it down in the event that happens."

"You also said you had studied the creature itself," Sarah said, folding her arms. "I didn't go reading your mind because I believed you then, was I wrong?"

Off Jim's look, Dr. Saunders sighed. "My team was involved in studying the hybrid as well, but it wasn't for purposes you think it is. We all know how dangerous the Zerg and Protoss are individually, so it comes as no surprise that something with the combined strength of both species would be far more dangerous. We studied it for weaknesses, places on its carapace that might not be as durable as other spots. Other scientists used captured Zerg and Protoss specimens, although with no success."

Jim shook his head in frustration. As much as he hated to admit it, the doctor had a point. Battles are not won without knowledge of the enemy, and while a hideous thing, he knew it was necessary to know more about these creatures if they were to have any chance of defeating them. His encounter with it on Castanar clearly showed their weapons had no effect on it other than make it angry.

"My team had been informed about your raid on the Castanar installation, and how that creature eventually destroyed virtually the whole lab complex. You got to see firsthand just how powerful that hybrid was."

"It's true," Raynor admitted. "Even the Dominion experimental weapons did nothing against it, but at least my Raiders were able to make off with some of the weapons. Stetmann has been working hard since then in the hopes to replicate them."

"I can help you in that matter," Saunders said calmly. "My team had developed the secret weapons you had found at the lab."

"But the chrono-rift device was based on alien technology!" Jim protested. "How did you create such a thing?"

"So was the experimental plasma gun you found in the lab," Dr. Saunders replied. "As I said earlier, you weren't the only one trying to incorporate Zerg and Protoss features for your equipment, the Dominion wanted the same thing. The experimental plasma gun was based on Protoss encounters the Dominion had. Although it was rare as we're technically not at war with them like we are with the Zerg, the occasional times we had encountered the Protoss had allowed us to see one of their biggest war machines. They call it the Colossus, and it was devastatingly powerful against even the Thors. However they made it, their heat beams could turn just about anything Dominion ground troops could throw at them to ashes in seconds."

"You wanted to reverse engineer something like that," Sarah stated.

"Along those lines. A few of the wrecked ones were brought to Dominion labs for analysis, and my team was ordered to produce weapons on both large and small scales that could rival it. The plasma gun in the Castanar lab was the smaller scale type, and after it had proven to be a success against the Zerg specimens there, we were ordered to produce the weapon on a mass scale. It was among the other reasons why my team had been transferred to New Folsom. This is a volcanic planet, and the heat from the magma if incorporated into the plasma guns will make them even more powerful."

"Then, I guess I should thank you for leaving some of those plasma guns at the lab," Jim said quietly. "I had to rely on them and the chrono-rift device very heavily to escape the lab once the hybrid was loose."

"The chrono-rift device was somewhat based on Zerg units, as well as the hybrid creature itself," Dr. Saunders explained. "Most of my team did not appreciate turning the creature's abilities into Dominion weapons, but most of us feared Mengsk and what he would do had we refused."

"It's all right, I can understand your fear. My hopes are that my rebellion will get most of the people to stop fearing the bastard. Now, what did you do to create the device?"

"You may not have known this, but some of the Zerg specimens stored in the lab were Infestors. The Dominion had learned early on that these Zerg creatures had some sort of fungal ability that can stop anything dead in its tracks."

"I had evolved the Zerg in such a way," Sarah said, still guilty about her actions. "It was meant to slow down large scale attacks or prevent enemies from escaping."

"From what my team learned about the hybrid, it appeared it had a similar ability, spraying some sort of slime around itself. Anyone unfortunate enough to get caught by the slime will have his movement greatly hindered. From those two characteristics, combined with the Protoss specimens held in the lab complex, my team was able to engineer the chrono-rift device. It wasn't capable of hurting anyone, but whoever was caught in its field would have had his movement slowed to a crawl."

"Well, at least it wasn't anything sick like the cloned subjects I saw in the vats," Jim said, shuddering at the thought of those abominations. "Seemed like Mengsk was trying to create a whole army of hybrids without even having the one he had under his control. It just shows you how greedy he is for power."

"The warbots you're seeing in this factory is his backup plan," Dr. Saunders explained. "You wanted to know more about the project, so allow me to show you want these things can do."

* * *

**Tal'darim Fleet, High Orbit Over Char**

"Mighty Xava'tor, what is the purpose we are here?" A Templar asked. "Char is a purely Zerg infested world! There are none of our Tal'darim brethren here!"

"I did not come here for that," Ulrezaj replied. "There is something down on the surface of the planet, something that I must gather. You may not understand it immediately, but it will play its role in the upcoming events ahead."

Without another word he turned to the Mothership command console core. "Initiate surface scans of the planet Char. Locate Kerrigan's primary hive cluster."


	35. Chapter 35

**Author's Note: Hey I'm back everyone!**

**I apologize for the delay in putting this chapter up, the job searching along with constant calls and interviews have made writing almost impossible lately, and I'm not sure if this will continue later on.** **Nevertheless, I was able to write up this chapter and hopefully you guys will enjoy it.**

**Now that Blizzcon has ended, I had been asked if I will show any of the new units that Blizzcon had shown.**

**Well, let's put it this way:**** My style is usually to write a few chapters ahead, but have a main structure already drawn out. Nevertheless I did say if any new Heart of the Swarm information I could incorporate into the fic, I would do so.**

**Do that end, you will see the new units pop up in my fic, it just won't be anytime soon, so please be patient on that.**

* * *

Chapter 35

**Dominion Secret Weapons Factory, New Folsom**

Sarah watched as the Dominion warbots were transported from the secret New Folsom underground factory to the Hercules cargo ships, where they were to be taken aboard the BattleCruisers in orbit. Dr. Saunders had made it clear that none of the war machines had been produced on as massive of a scale as Mengsk had liked because of one simple problem: the artificial intelligence factor.

She saw the logic in the scientist's thinking, as on a battlefield some things a soldier has to rely on his gut instinct, and that does not work well if he is remote controlling so many of these warbots, being forced to concentrate on so many of them all at once, and therefore putting himself in greater danger.

Fortunately, Jim had assured her that the A.I. problem was something his science geek Stetmann could easily solve. Apparently during his trips to planets to collect the Xel'Naga artifact fragments, he had come into frequent contact with the Tal'darim Protoss. Granted she herself had encountered them on Monlyth, but she had not anticipated that they would be guarding _all_ of the fragments.

In any case, Jim informed her that during those encounters, he was able to collect Protoss relics for Stetmann to study, including the shards of Khaydarin Crystals. He had kept it in some science tank for his special studies aboard the Hyperion laboratory, and from the recorded log entries, the crystal itself was able to repair one of his faulty nano-fabricators all by itself, almost as if the crystal was intentionally helping him. After Char, Stetmann had theorized that from what he had learned from the crystal, it was possible to design an advanced A.I. system for their weapons.

If it could be done, then the timing for it couldn't be better. Sarah knew that helping the Protoss on Aiur was going to be the last thing he would do before returning to the revolution at hand. Once Aiur was free of the Zerg, it was Jim's hope that the Protoss will aid the Raiders against Mengsk.

Dr. Saunders had explained that as the Dominion was technically not at war with the Protoss, the project had mainly been based on the assumption that the adversaries faced will either be the Zerg swarm or other terrans, enemies of the Dominion. In the event that Protoss adversaries arise, it will have to be played out by ear. Protoss technology had always been superior to that of the Dominion anyway, and therefore the most that could be done is observe how well the warbots play out on the battlefield, before making the necessary modifications if it becomes necessary.

To Sarah, the warbots and their functionalities displayed had proved to be very capable. Although it was done using remote control and not under battlefield conditions, she had no doubt from what she had seen that they would be formidable against terran, Zerg, and Protoss alike on the battlefield.

Dr. Saunders had explained that some of the weapon systems and combat capabilities were taken directly from Zerg and Protoss characteristics, and Kerrigan could easily see them being used to great effect if handled by an advanced enough A.I. The S.E.T.H. warbots, separated into the Alpha-Type, Beta-Type, Gamma-Type, and Omega-Type, and the Cyber Devourer all had devastating potential, and she knew Jim would want more of these to be manufactured to help his cause for liberation.

Unlike the heavy treads of the A.R.E.S. warbot, the S.E.T.H. warbots were bipedal walkers. Such a change was necessary given the nature of battlefield. Although the A.R.E.S. warbot treads were designed to handle rough terrain, the Dominion military had quickly learned that when dealing with the Zerg and fighting on the creep they generate, the treads of Siege Tanks often don't last as long as hoped for. On the other hand, the Goliath and Viking, when in ground mode, are both bipedal, and therefore do not wear out as easily on such terrain.

This had been the basis when the Dominion began work on the Thor Project, and developing the Odin siege walker, and later scaled down into the Thor and mass produced. However despite its behemoth size, heavy weaponry and durable armor, the Thor was far from invincible on the ground. Aside from the fact that it did not possess strong anti-air capabilities, the sheer size of the Thor meant it wasn't very maneuverable under combat conditions. This meant it had to be protected by more agile units, and the Thor's slow speed on the battlefield meant that such units assigned to protect it could not be used to their full potential. Finally, although the Thor had been intended as a frontline combat walker, it was meant to attack massive units like the Ultralisk, as well as enemy buildings and defensive structures. As such, little thought was given to equipping the Thor with machine guns or other lighter weapons in the event of dealing with smaller enemies such as Zerglings, and as the Zerg invasion had progressed, this weakness was thoroughly exploited.

As such, the new Dominion warbots manufactured at New Folsom were a means to correct the weaknesses of the Thor, and the demonstration shown had convinced Sarah of the ingenuity of the Dominion scientists and engineers.

Although smaller than the Thor, the S.E.T.H. warbots, combined with Protoss technology, had made them a force to be reckoned with. Larger than the Goliath and Viking, Kerrigan's initial impression was that these warbots would be only slightly more maneuverable compared to the Thor. She was quickly proved wrong. Inspired by the jet packs of the Reaper, the S.E.T.H. warbots were fitted with similar packs onto their backs for increased speed. Although their jet packs do not allow them to surmount obstacles independently as the Reapers do, the increased movement nevertheless is a significant improvement to their maneuverability.

Added to the improved movement speed was the technology taken from the Protoss Colossus, as the Dominion had worked hard in an attempt to replicate the towering walker's thermal lance ability, capable of incinerating even the strongest of terran ground vehicles to ashes. This had been incorporated into the S.E.T.H. warbots' targeting system in their cybernetic heads. Although significantly less powerful compared to the Colossus's thermal lance and with a shorter range, the heat lasers fired from the warbots' eyes are nevertheless capable of sweeping across the battlefield, capable of killing most infantrymen relatively quickly. As Sarah had pointed out during the time she had spent with the Zerg, even the Roaches, meant to replace the Hydralisk's role in ground assaults, would not be able to last very long against such attacks.

The heat lasers were not the only incorporation of the Colossus technology into the warbots. Obsessed with the idea of creating a thermal lance ability that rivaled that of the mighty Protoss walker, Mengsk had ordered a stronger laser be built into the S.E.T.H. warbots. This had been accomplished by building a power generator into each individual machine, and this had given the S.E.T.H. warbots the ability to fire a chest laser burst, having drawn power from the power generator built into its torso. While still slightly less powerful than the thermal lance of the Colossus, it is much more devastating in comparison to the heat lasers from its eyes. As Dr. Saunders had shown in the demonstration, a single successful hit was capable of making even the Thor walker stagger backwards, and this was the intended method of attack to be used in the event of dealing with large numbers of Zerg Ultralisks.

It is from there that the S.E.T.H. warbots began to differ in their combat capabilities, but as shown in the demonstration, each proved devastating in its own right.

The Alpha S.E.T.H. had incorporated the features of the experimental plasma gun that Raynor had found in the Castanar Installation. According to Dr. Saunders, Mengsk had quickly seen the potential of this weapon and had ordered larger versions of them to be built, and this was exactly what equipped the Alpha S.E.T.H. on its left arm as its main weapon. Although its firing rate was only slightly faster than that of the infantry version, the damage was much greater, as it would only take a few shots from it to knock a Thor walker out of commission.

In addition to its main plasma cannon, the Alpha S.E.T.H. also had a double barreled version of the infantry plasma gun mounted on its right shoulder. This was done because its heat lasers, while formidable, were inferior in comparison to the plasma guns, and when mounted on a warbot and powered by its generator, was capable of firing at a much faster rate than when wielded by regular infantry.

Finally, Sarah had seen the incorporation of the Zerg combat characteristics on the Alpha S.E.T.H. Saunders explained that although easily killed, the Zergling's attack claws proved to be extremely effective against Dominion infantrymen if they can get within range, and this was common given the sheer number of the creatures used in combat. Although there are terran infantry assault rifles capable of killing the Zergling with a single shot, this can often only be done if the Zerg creature is hit in the correct part of the body, and such cases are relatively rare in the heat of battle. As such, for its right arm, the Alpha S.E.T.H. warbot was given a cybernetic claw of a similar design to that of the Zergling's. Larger than the Zergling itself, this was an added protection for the warbot in the event it got tied down in close range fighting. As the demonstration had shown, a single swipe from it was capable of easily tearing through Marauder armor.

The Beta S.E.T.H. warbot was meant to be a means to eventually replace the Firebat and Hellion in the Dominion military. Although the Hellion had heavier armor compared to the Firebat, its infernal flamethrower was not an improvement compared to the Firebat's perdition flamethrower, as both weapons did relatively the same damage on enemy targets. The greatest advantage in the case of the Hellion was its fast speed, but this came at the sacrifice of heavier armor, making it little stronger than the Vulture. As demonstrated in the course of battle against the Zerg, the speed advantage had fallen far short of expectations due to the Zerg usage of Sacs, used to bypass terran defenses and falling directly into areas where the Hellion couldn't maneuver as effectively.

As such, Dominion engineers and scientists had worked to create a stronger flamethrowing unit, with much more durable armor and thus capable of holding out more effectively against the Zerg. This was exactly what had been incorporated into the Beta S.E.T.H. warbot, with a large hellfire flamethrower mounted on its left arm. Capable of using white phosphorous, thermite and napalm, it is vastly more powerful in comparison to the Firebat and Hellion. However it still shared the same weakness found on the Firebat: the huge fuel tanks mounted on its back. Combat experience had shown that if hit by enemy fire, the fuel tank on the Firebat would explode, and this was still the case with the Beta S.E.T.H. Although the neosteel plating on the tanks made it stronger in comparison to those found on the Firebat, it was nevertheless still less durable compared to the rest of the armor on the Beta S.E.T.H.

For that reason, an alternative weapon was mounted on the warbot, in the event its enemies were able to get within range that would negate the flamethrower's effectiveness. Dr. Saunders explained that he had known some of the details regarding the Dominion's Project Gestalt, a project that Sarah quickly pointed out did not die as the Dominion military had been led to believe, and that of particular interest of that project was the usage of the psionic blade, the primary weapon of the Protoss Zealot. Saunders of course had no intention of incorporating such a weapon into a human test subject due to his moral and ethical standards, but machines were a different story.

Thus a similar blade weapon was equipped on the Beta S.E.T.H.'s right arm, similar to the cybernetic claw of the Alpha S.E.T.H. As data records on the Zealot had shown, the psionic blade is generated by psionic energy, and that was something the Beta S.E.T.H. could not do because it was purely mechanical. However, it had been confirmed that such a generation was done via a Zealot's power suit, through a combination of both biological and mechanical means. This confirmed that psionic energy alone was not enough for the formation of such blades, and it was through intense study of this that the energy blade was created and mounted on the Beta S.E.T.H. Without the addition of psionic energy, the energy blade was inferior to the psionic blade of the Protoss, but as the warbot was significantly larger than Zealots, its blade matched its scale and therefore remained a powerful weapon in melee combat.

The Gamma S.E.T.H. had certainly lived up to its name of "going all out in attack", as Dr. Saunders had explained. Unlike the Alpha and Beta S.E.T.H., the Gamma S.E.T.H. had no close range melee combat abilities, but this was more than made up for by the sheer weaponry it possessed. After the Brood War, the weakness of the Goliath had been clearly demonstrated. Although its 30mm autocannon proved very effective against Zerg light and medium breeds, they did not have the quick firing rate that Dominion pilots had hoped for. This led to many of them being overwhelmed by Zerglings, as too many of them were able to get within range, negating the Goliath's effectiveness. The Viking had been built as an attempt to correct this problem in its ground mode, but while its 20mm 6-barreled twin gatling cannons had a faster firing rate, it did not have the stopping power of the autocannon the Goliath possessed. To compound matters, Viking pilots were also relatively rare, as few pilots could master both the air and ground forms of the vehicle. This meant that for each Viking destroyed, it becomes that much harder to replace given the scarcity of pilots.

Thus the Gamma S.E.T.H. was meant to fully correct this problem on the ground, leaving the Vikings to divert their main focus to the air. Unlike the 20mm gatling cannon of the Viking and the 30mm autocannon of the Goliath, the Gamma S.E.T.H. had a vicious 8-barreled 45mm rotary cannon equipped to each of its arms. Being significantly larger than the Goliath and Viking, its size also gave it the advantage of achieving a faster firing rate than both the Goliath and the Viking, and its larger caliber meant it also possessed a greater hitting power than both terran walkers. Unlike the Goliath and Viking's weapons, which could only fire armor piercing rounds, the Gamma S.E.T.H.'s rotary cannons were also capable of firing high explosive and incendiary rounds, making it a truly formidable weapon on the battlefield.

Nevertheless, its superior firing rate still came with the weakness all rotary cannons shared: the overheating factor. Although the Gamma S.E.T.H. also had heat lasers and the chest burst laser, the usage of them drew even more power from the generator, and under conditions if the rotary cannons overheat, would permanently burn the generator out, leaving the Gamma S.E.T.H. defenseless.

To counter this, additional weapons were fitted onto the Gamma S.E.T.H.'s back in the form of rocket pods, with a large 230mm pod mounted directly behind its back and two smaller 110mm pods on its flanks. This concept had been born when the weakness of the 330mm howitzers on the Odin was shown, but nothing was done to correct this problem on the Thor's 250mm Strike Cannons.

As both walkers' cannons were intended for frontline combat and assaulting enemy bases, little thought had been given to their designs for defensive purposes. As such, the artillery shells fired from both the Thor and the Odin were unguided, despite the large area damage it would inflict during such a barrage. As most Zerg ground units had the ability to burrow, this had greatly decreased the effectiveness of the artillery barrage. The Gamma S.E.T.H.'s rocket pods were meant to correct this problem, as virtually all of the Zerg units had to surface to the ground in order to attack.

Initially, Dominion engineers had favored the infrared homing rockets, tracking the Zerg heat signature to guide the rockets to their destination. However, this proved useless in the event of fighting the Zerg on volcanic planets, as the sheer heat from the planet's surface would disrupt this. It was eventually concluded to use the Gamma S.E.T.H.'s targeting system in its head. While both the large and smaller rocket pods did not possess the hitting power of the Thor, the fact that they were guided makes up for this deficiency, able to blast apart enemies on the battlefield when they are performing flanking maneuvers.

The Omega S.E.T.H. warbot had been designed to somewhat assimilate the combat effectiveness of the Protoss Zealot, yet still retain the fighting qualities of the marine. While most Dominion marines still considered fighting the Zerg in hand to hand combat as utter insanity, few could deny the warrior capabilities of the Zealots and their effectiveness at killing the Zerg in such a way. Unlike the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma S.E.T.H., all of which were 25 feet tall, the Omega S.E.T.H. was a 40-foot tall walker designed to provide adequate support for the Dominion infantrymen in the event of ammunition shortages, as was all too often the case when dealing with the Zerg.

Instead of having the conventional weapons such as plasma cannons, flamethrowers, or rotary cannons, the Omega S.E.T.H. possessed an extremely powerful pair of drills on its arms. Although drills were usually meant to be part of mining operations, it did not take very long before Dominion engineers saw their potential as weapons when future conflicts with the Zerg arrive. As shown in the demonstration, the drill proved to be extremely capable, and Sarah concluded that even the thick carapace of the Ultralisk would not be able to withstand it for very long.

Due to the ability to drill through most types of terrain, the Omega S.E.T.H. had also been designed in an attempt to replicate the burrowing capabilities of the Zerg. As seen by Dominion casualties all too often, the ability to move while burrowed led to many Dominion Marines, Firebats, Marauders, and Reapers being slaughtered by Roaches as they popped up from under them at times they had least expected it. Thus the Omega S.E.T.H. had a similar ability, pressing its drills into the ground and tunneling itself into the earth, before emerging behind enemy lines and taking it by surprise.

In addition, as its drills were always in a position for combat, the Omega S.E.T.H. was the only type of the warbots that had a different jet pack model mounted onto its back, granting it greater speed and thus increasing its chances to pursue a retreating enemy and catch it within its deadly drills. Although this speed was still slightly slower in comparison to the Reaper, the Omega S.E.T.H.'s armor was thicker compared to its Alpha, Beta, and Gamma counterparts, and therefore was able to survive longer in the midst of melee combat.

However, this did not mean the Omega S.E.T.H. was defenseless at longer ranges. During its design, it had been quickly pointed out that by replacing the standard weapons with drills, it left the warbot with only its heat leasers and chest laser burst for projectile attacks. This was thus the second reason why the warbot was bigger than its counterparts: the storage space for additional drills. To ensure the walker had the ability to take on Zerg creatures like the Roach and Hydralisk, both of which attack from a distance, the Omega S.E.T.H.'s drills were designed to be removable, and subsequently had smaller versions of the Reaper booster backs attached to their rear ends. This allowed the Omega S.E.T.H. to fire off its drills, where they would be quickly propelled to their target by the rocket packs. This made the warbot a deadly opponent at longer ranges, and as shown in the demonstration by Dr. Saunders, a single shot from a rocket drill was more than enough to tear through a Siege Tank with relative ease.

The Cyber Devourer was unlike any warbot Sarah had ever seen, and Dr. Saunders had explained this was the most specialized of the Dominion projects, created from some of the most brilliant minds of Dominion scientists and engineers, as well as state of the art Dominion technology. Although it had certainly aspects that made it similar to that of the mechanical Predator that the Raiders had used, the Cyber Devourer's abilities put it to shame, although Kerrigan remained convinced that Stetmann could have developed something just as powerful if he had the resources at his disposal.

Quadrupedal in appearance, the Cyber Devourer somewhat resembled that of a robotic Zergling, although its size was far greater, surpassing even that of a Siege Tank. Saunders had explained that its appearance had been inspired by the specialized Zerglings known as the Devouring Ones, and Kerrigan confirmed that they were indeed a specialized strain, their DNA and genetic code proving to be much more difficult to replicate compared to the standard Zergling. There was, however, a critical difference: while the Zergling's tail was positioned at the rear end of its body in a somewhat resting position that points towards the ground, the Cyber Devourer's tail somewhat resembles that of a scorpion, positioned above its body in a striking position.

However, this is no ordinary cybernetic tail. While the Cyber Devourer is capable of attacking with its front claws, it is its tail that forms the core of its offensive and defensive capabilities. Dr. Saunders had explained that the experimental plasma gun derived from the Protoss Colossus and the energy blade from the Beta S.E.T.H. were both incorporated into the Cyber Devourer, and thus it is able to fire concentrated plasma rounds from its tail in such a manner. While not as powerful as the plasma cannon main armament found on the Alpha S.E.T.H., this is compensated by the Cyber Devourer's tail melee attacks.

Inspired by the psionic blades of the Protoss Zealot, Dominion engineers had worked to create something similar onto the Cyber Devourer. This had been done on its tail, as its tip had been designed in the form that somewhat resembled a pincer. Thus when the Cyber Devourer swings its tail in a circular arc about its body, its pincer edges would ignite, activating its energy blades, and slicing through even the toughest armor of terran vehicles.

However, the greatest accomplishment done by Dominion engineers on the Cyber Devourer was taken from the Viking as a double support unit for the air and ground forces. In a similar fashion, the Cyber Devourer also had a second mode, where it was able to stand up on two legs and become bipedal. In this form, the cybernetic tail detaches from its body, and is held in the machine's hands like a war scepter. The energy pincers remain active here, so the Cyber Devourer can wield its detached tail as an energy axe, just as capable of slicing through its targets.

With its tail no longer connected to the Cyber Devourer's main body, and thus the power generator in it, its plasma blasts are weakened by the loss of its power supply. However, Dominion engineers had built a rapid firing system into it in this form, and thus the Cyber Devourer is able to compensate for its weakened plasma shots by firing them in a rapid rate, thus remaining a formidable opponent against any ground enemy.

As Sarah watched these Dominion warbots load up into the cargo ships, she felt a hand land on her shoulder.

"You did great out there, Sarah," Jim said softly. "You saved the lives of so many of my Raiders, as well as Warfield's men, not to mention all the prisoners."

"So we're done here?"

Jim nodded. "Matt arrived with the Hyperion before the assault on the prison complex even began, even though I told him to remain on Haven to continue to watch over the military buildup. As I had requested, Warfield's men have confiscated the stocks of dry ice from the food processing factories, they will come in handy where we're going next."

"Aiur," Sarah said softly, more to herself than to Jim.

He could immediately see the expression of fear on her face. It was clear she was not ready to believe in earning redemption when it came to the Protoss. She was having a hard time believing it for the terran race as it is, and she was still frightened of what they would do to her.

"It'll be all right," Jim assured her. "Fight alongside them, and in time they'll trust you."

Sarah rested her head on his shoulder. The fact that no Protoss had barged in for her head on Haven was miraculous enough. She did not see that possible on Aiur, however. Unlike Haven, which was only a Protoss colony world, Aiur was their homeworld. Given that they had been mobilizing their forces to retake their world back after her defeat on Char, it's likely that there are hundreds of millions of Protoss on Aiur right now, if not more. Artanis may have given the order that she was not to be harmed, but after all the suffering she had caused them, Sarah didn't believe for even a second that no Protoss would defy that order and seek retribution.

Nevertheless, she knew facing the Protoss was inevitable, and that was a demon she couldn't avoid. Given the fact that first impressions go a long way and that history was of vital importance to the Firstborns, it would seem redemption in their eyes would be virtually impossible. Jim wasn't wrong when he told Artanis that none of the Protoss knew what she was like before she became the Queen of Blades, but she was also the first female terran they had encountered, and after all the pain and suffering she had done to them, Sarah was convinced they would still see her the same way.

"Come on," Jim said softly, gently tugging at her arm, gesturing to a nearby Dropship. "It's time we leave New Folsom and help the Protoss in retaking their world."

Sarah nodded, as she followed Jim up the ramp. She could only hope he was right about the Protoss, or she wouldn't last a heartbeat the moment she set foot on Aiur.

* * *

**Author's Note: All right, so with regards to why I had named the warbots with the name Seth, all you have to do is look at the reason why Blizzard gave their warbots in Wings of Liberty under the name of Ares.**

**Ares is the Greek god of war,**** and that is something that perfectly suits the situation on the battlefield.**

**Similarly, Seth is the Egyptian god of darkness and chaos, and we all know how much havoc is seen in the battlefield in the Starcraft universe.**

**Anyways, I will try to make the next update come sooner than having you guys wait this long for this one.**

**As always, please read and review!  
**


	36. Chapter 36

**Author's Note: All right everyone, I'm back with a new chapter. Schedule-wise, everything is still in a state of uncertainty for me, so I still can't make any concrete promises on how frequently I'll be updating. Future chapters will obviously still keep showing up, I just don't know how long you may have to wait for this.**

**I understand that the last chapter wasn't very well liked, and I apologize for that. There are very few chapters of my fic like that, I hope you're willing to put up with it.**

**Hopefully this chapter you guys will enjoy more.**

**By the way, in the last chapter near the end I had made mentions of the Raiders had taken dry ice from New Folsom. This is not just some minor detail, it will have a role to play in a future chapter, you just watch.**

* * *

Chapter 36

**Aiur System**

"All right sir," General Ridgeway said over the BattleCruiser bridge communications console with Mengsk. "That mission you sent me on to Aiur was a total nightmare. Fighting the Protoss even when we have the advantage of numerical superiority is exhausting enough, the operation down there was near suicidal. Most of my boys were killed, vehicles of all sorts from Hellions to Thors had been lost, and there's virtually no one that survived the battle that's in any shape to fight on."

"What about the gestalts and what your engineering team had excavated?" Mengsk asked.

"The excavated stones are intact," the general answered. "Most of the gestalts survived the battle, though almost all of them are exhausted. We were all considered lucky to survive, too. For some odd reason the Protoss all of a sudden stopped their attacks and left the area. I don't know why they did that considering that they were on the verge of overrunning us, but I'm certainly not complaining about it."

"Then all is well, general. You did a much better job than General Madison, who failed completely on obtaining the terrazine as I had ordered. Your mission turned out to be a success, and it shall be well noted. As for your surviving boys, they'll all be awarded with the Silver Star for their actions."

"I hate to be the bringer of bad news sir, but that's not going to cut it with them," Ridgeway said quietly. "They didn't say anything about it as we were leaving Aiur, but that was only because all of us were still on the alert in case the Protoss case chase to us. Now that it's clear we had escaped—"

"So what do they want?"

"Answers, sir. These stones from the Protoss temple ruins mean nothing to them. As far as they see it, it's nothing more than a few pieces of Protoss holy relics."

"They're far more than just religious artifacts I want to add to some museum, Ridgeway. They are part of my plan to regain control of the Koprulu sector, and that part of the plan will start once I have all the components I require in my grasp."

"Emperor, some of my surviving officers have pointed out that this mission is going to add yet another enemy to the Dominion on the list, and I'm inclined to agree with them."

"The enemies of the Dominion are everywhere, general. Almost all of them can be easily crushed."

"With all due respect, the Protoss aren't our ordinary opponents. Most of their technology is far beyond the understanding of even our best scientists and engineers!"

"You think I don't know that? It's exactly why I have those eggheads work around the clock in their labs every time we can get our hands on Protoss technology."

"I'm just afraid what they'll do in the aftermath of what happened today, sir. From their point of view, the Dominion had just stolen religious artifacts from one of their holy sites. They may not be human, but they certainly have shared characteristics with the terran race, and you know as well as I do that we aren't going to simply ignore the ones who desecrate a holy site of ours."

"This is where another benefit of Raynor's victory on Char had produced. The loss of the Queen of Blades means the Zerg leadership is weakened, so the Protoss would use this advantage to take all their territories back from the Zerg. It'll keep their hands busy for quite a while to come, while I push ahead with my own plans."

"My boys want a better idea over what these plans are, sir."

"You can tell them there's no point for me to explain because it's beyond their understanding, and most likely yours as well."

"Maybe not, but they don't like the idea of being left in the dark."

"Please," Mengsk scoffed. "During the Dominion salvaging operation on Tarsonis, most of the marines didn't know what was going on, and they didn't complain one bit."

"That's because they didn't suffer appalling casualties like here, and while they didn't know what information that Confederate adjutant contained since it was encrypted, the marines aren't stupid. They had enough common sense to know whatever was on there was important to the Dominion."

"So tell them the same thing here, Ridgeway. They may not know what's so important about the stones, but it's even more important to the Dominion compared to the salvage operation on Tarsonis."

"They won't buy that. With an adjutant, they can at least understand something. These Protoss relics on the other hand they're completely clueless about."

Mengsk was clearly getting tired of this. "Very well, general. Tell your boys this: my plan will involve the stones they collected as well as the contents I sent General Madison to collect. Once I have everything I need, I'll explain my plan to you. In the meantime, I have uploaded the coordinates of the Dominion installation I want these stones to be transported to. Get to it."

* * *

**Surface of Bel'Shir**

General Madison could hear the grumblings of virtually all of his remaining marines. Clearly they were not happy to be down on the surface of Bel'Shir again after the savage beating they had taken from the Tal'darim. For most, the terrazine gas meant absolutely nothing to them, and the neural resocialization process was the only reason why they hadn't mutinied. Only the few remaining processing personnel he had saw the reason for Mengsk's desire for the terrazine, but even they felt it simply wasn't worth their lives, as even they had to be mobilized in a last ditch effort to keep the unknown Protoss Archon entity from storming into their base and killing everyone in it.

For now, however, the primary concern was one of camouflage. Fortunately for them, Bel'Shir was a jungle moon, and despite the fact that its surface was full of ancient Protoss holy temples, shrines, and other religious sanctuaries, there were nevertheless areas on the moon's surface where the jungle foliage was extremely thick, and therefore made ideal landing spots for the terran Command Centers. However, with most of his military forces wiped out, the only way the mining operation could succeed now was to be as stealthy as possible. Although the BattleCruisers had indicated that large numbers of Tal'darim Protoss had left the moon shortly after Madison's evacuation of the terran base, the general knew that the possibility that there were still Protoss on Bel'Shir could not be ruled out. With no Siege Tanks and Goliaths left, and only a few functioning Thors, Hellions, and Vultures, it was clear that they could not afford to allow the Protoss to know they were down on Bel'Shir once more.

He himself was of course on the ground with his troops, but that didn't make them feel much better. Although his forces still had a substantial amount of small arms, they were only effective against light Protoss units such as Sentries. Although they could be used to great effect against Zealots, it would take very concentrated fire to make that happen, and after the appalling casualties sustained earlier, there were too few combat seasoned infantrymen for the job. Combat engineers and artillery personnel were given refresher training on using the small arms in a desperate attempt to fill the shortages of standard infantry, as did former Goliath pilots and Siege Tank drivers and gunners, their normal services no longer possible with their vehicles destroyed.

The remaining Vultures were under orders not to lay their Spider Mines to defend their current position. Although the mines proved to be very effective at stopping Protoss Zealots, Stalkers, and Sentries, it didn't change the fact that the sound of a mine detonation would inevitably attract unwanted attention, and that was something Madison wanted to avoid. Although marines and Marauders alike were bitter about being denied such a valuable defense, enough eventually gave in to the general's decision, as the ammunition shortages meant that open confrontation with the Protoss must be used only as a last resort.

Madison was thankful when he had seen so many Protoss depart from Bel'Shir. The material strength of his forces was now so seriously depleted that no Thor walker could open fire with its artillery barrage cannons without express permission. The shortages of incendiary fuel meant that it was impossible to fully arm all of the remaining Hellions and Firebats. As such, flame fuel was being allocated to the most combat experienced units, while the reserve fuel stocks were to be held back, to be handed out only when they have exhausted their capacity.

He tapped into his communications link. "This is General Madison. What's the status of our scouting party? "

"So far so good, sir," Came the reply. "There's been no sign of any Protoss activity, and we're almost out of the jungle's cover."

"How much further is it from the holy altars where they're collecting the terrazine from?"

"Just a few more miles, although we don't know what good that'll do us. When we departed this place, the Protoss had virtually all of them sealed up, remember?"

"There's got to be some left that they haven't," Madison replied. "Terrazine gas shares the same basic properties as vespene, and we all know the Protoss use it as a fuel source just like we do. I don't care how much vespene is on this moon, the Protoss wouldn't abandon the terrazine gas collection altogether."

"Even if we can find one that's still open, we won't be able to collect the terrazine fast enough. We need to find a way to open the sealed altars."

"That would immediately attract the attention of the Protoss!" Madison said. "You really think they'd be dumb enough to leave the altar sealed, and then not leave any indicators in case someone comes to mess with it?"

"Well what other choice do we have? If we don't open those altars, it means we'll have to stay here longer for the gas collecting. The longer we stay here, the likelier we're going to get spotted again. If we get spotted again, there's no way we can survive another concentrated Protoss attack. I know it's not something you like to hear sir, but you know as well as I do our forces barely even have the strength for static defense, so if we're still going to proceed with the terrazine collecting, we have to do it as quickly as possible, and get the hell off this rock."

"All right, I'll agree to that. You got any ideas in mind in how to open the altars?"

"Well we know they sealed the altars up by doing something with those jewel crystals on the altar towers. From what Dominion intelligence knows about the Protoss, it's the fact that they are a pure psionic race, and that just about everything psionic about them is also compatible with their technology, a mix of psionic, biological, and mechanical components. Since these altars are also built out of Protoss technology—"

"—it means they're also partially powered by psionic energy," Madison finished. "You're saying that if we can overcome that, the altar seal will drop?"

"It's only a theory, but yes. When we evacuated Bel'Shir, we had seen the Protoss use their Probes to seal off the terrazine altars. The Probes are just robotic drones, so even if they had psionic energy powering them at all, it would be a very small amount."

"So you're saying that such amounts of energy would be lower in comparison to our ghosts," Madison stated.

"That's my hope, sir. If true, then if we get our ghosts close enough to those altar towers, they can channel their psionic energy towards it. If this theory is correct, that should be enough to cause the seal barrier to drop, allowing us access to collect the terrazine from it."

"How long would such a process take?"

"That's impossible to say, general. The Protoss are psionically stronger than the Dominion's ghosts anyway, so the most I can say is it'll probably take longer than what we expect it to."

Madison sighed in frustration. It wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, but he knew he couldn't really expect anything better. To make matters worse, even if this theory was correct, it now means they're staking everything on their remaining ghosts. If they were killed, then there would be no hope of any kind of a mission success, and most likely not even a chance of their own survival.

He contemplated this for a while, before speaking slowly into his comm-link. "Do it carefully. We've already lost many ghosts in the Protoss attacks last time, and I have no intention of losing more. I'll send some ghosts down to your location, where you will escort them to the terrazine altars. They must be protected at all costs."

* * *

**Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char**

Ulrezaj watched as the Tal'darim Protoss set up their base defenses as efficiently as possible. Despite the fact that their forces had been greatly weakened by Jim Raynor, the scattered remains that he was able to unite together were still as formidable as ever. From the Xel'Naga Worldship, Monlyth, Xil, Bel'Shir, and Typhon XI, the Dark Archon had united them into his personal warband. Although still not as powerful as he had hoped for, Tal'darim Templars had assured him that more of their brethren from other worlds would be joining with them very soon, most of them eager to see their mighty Xava'tor.

The Tal'darim forces were certainly strengthening with each passing moment, but it remained to be seen if it is up to the task at hand. Here, on the surface of Char, near the primary hive cluster of the Queen of Blades, that shall be put to the test.

Most of the Tal'darim were both impressed, as well as embittered, shortly after their landing on the volcanic planet. On one hand, this was near the scene were the ancient Xel'Naga relic had been activated, reverting the Queen of Blades back to Sarah Kerrigan, and killing vast numbers of Zerg in the process. On the other hand, despite what had been accomplished, most remained bitter towards Jim Raynor, for killing their brethren and stealing the sacred artifacts of the Xel'Naga. Ulrezaj had assured them that the terran would be punished for all the Tal'darim Protoss he had slain, and most of his warband believed him right away.

For the time being however, their efforts were to be concentrated on the Zerg hive cluster. Although there were many Tal'darim that were confused as to why they are to come to Char, none questioned Ulrezaj. In reality the Dark Archon was somewhat confused himself, as it was Duran who had recommended to him to come to the Zerg infested world. He would say little regarding the reasons why, only that Ulrezaj would discover the components that would be vital to his hybrids.

Ulrezaj did not quite see exactly what Duran had in mind for it, but as this was supported by his master, he dared not disobey the Dark Voice.

The task would prove to be extremely difficult, and Ulrezaj undoubtedly was aware of this. Despite the Zerg defeat on Char and the crippling of their leadership, their numbers remained numerous on the ash world. Although the Xel'Naga artifact had killed every Zerg at the base of the primary hive cluster, the numbers that remain proved substantial. Kerrigan's hive cluster was the largest one on Char, comprising of some 2.8 billion Zerg creatures, according to the orbital scans from the Motherships. As such, despite the scans had indicated that approximately 275 million Zerg had been killed at the hive cluster, it still amounted to less than 10 percent of the total.

With their Queen of Blades gone, Ulrezaj had hoped this would make the Zerg forces here less effective in combat, but nevertheless sheer numbers still play a crucial factor in battle, and he knew his Tal'darim forces could not prevail against this many Zerg still in the area. If they had any advantage at all, it would be the fact that without their queen, the Zerg would have no one to give them orders to launch concentrated attacks. Nevertheless, Char remained their base of operations throughout this entire sector of the galaxy, and it seemed unlikely they would allow any intruders to remain on their world, regardless of their leadership status.

"Mighty Xava'tor, our defenses are almost ready," a High Templar reported.

"Very good, young warrior," Ulrezaj replied. "How long before we are ready to commence the attack on the primary hive cluster?"

"Soon. As we speak more of our Tal'darim brethren are warping into the area. Our mighty Carrier fleet will be joining us here soon, and our Colossi are moving into attack position."

"What of our flanks?"

"We have positioned hundreds of Photon Cannons at the east and west entrances to our base. Other High Templars are standing by near their location, ready to unleash the full might of their psionic storms should the Zerg attempt to break through."

"Very well. Be sure that they stay their wrath against the Zerg should they attack from there. Our numbers are still insignificant against them here, and we must focus all our energies at the heart of the hive cluster directly north of us. The answers I seek are located there, and we must break through the Zerg ranks to gather them as quickly as possible."

* * *

**Bridge, Hyperion, High Orbit Over Aiur**

"All right commander, we're entering Aiur's atmosphere now," Matt announced from the Hyperion's bridge. "Looks like your Protoss buddies have already wreaked havoc on the Zerg air power here."

"I'm glad," Jim replied. "But long range scans have indicated there's clearly still Zerg on this world, despite the fact they're being so rapidly killed by the Protoss. Once we touchdown, we've got to mobilize all of our forces to help them out."

"I'm going to be glad to finally be fighting with the Protoss instead of against them," Nova grumbled, more to herself than to Jim. "Don't forget Jim, I was with you on Typhon XI when we retrieved one of the remaining artifact pieces. Here I was thinking _you_ were the fanatical one, going down to a planet that was getting incinerated by fire waves. That the Tal'darim actually went there to fight you despite the fire wave threat which would have killed them too, that's just utter insanity."

"It's nothing new," Jim assured her. "The Protoss are very devoted to keep the holy relics of the Xel'Naga off anyone else's hands, no matter what the circumstances are. But you're right, I too am looking forward to fighting alongside them against the Zerg, instead of like what happened on Haven."

Sarah looked out from the bridge, lost in her own thoughts. Just as she was still refusing to accept she was never the Queen of Blades to begin with, she was also still convinced of the hostile reaction she would be getting from the Protoss down there. There were still plenty among the Raiders who were skeptical about the Xel'Naga prophecy, and it wouldn't surprise her one bit if most of the Protoss felt the exactly same way. But regardless, she would have no more fighting over her. She may have promised Jim that she would fight alongside the Protoss to gain their forgiveness and trust once again, but unfortunately that would only work if they're willing to give her that chance, and she was sure many wouldn't feel that way.

If the Protoss chose to have her killed once they land on Aiur, then so be it. She wouldn't resist that, and she would make sure Jim wouldn't defend her from it. In truth, she still felt she didn't deserve to live after everything she did to the Protoss race, and nothing happened since Char has changed that part of guilt about her. True, the Hyperion wasn't attacked by Protoss Carriers or any other ships when it was passing through them to enter the atmosphere, but that didn't mean the same would be true for all the Protoss on the ground.

Jim must have picked up on her thoughts and concerns, as he walked over to her. "It'll be all right, Sarah. Artanis made it clear that the prophecy could not be ignored, and that most of the Protoss have accepted this."

Kerrigan shook her head slowly. "No matter where we land, we're going to be surrounded by more Protoss than you can count, Jim. There's no way you can expect all of them not to take hostile action against me, and I don't want you to protect me if they do."

"We've been over this before. They won't do it, trust me," Jim said, before turning to Matt. "Matt, chart a course for the Protoss capital city of Antioch. According to Protoss reports when we got here, it's among the few places left on Aiur that still had a high concentration of Zerg, so we'll start there in helping them out."

* * *

**Author's Note:**** So in this chapter, I kind of wanted to split things over into ****a few different points with the 4 different perspectives I had told in this chapter.**

**With Ridgeway and his men, the point I was trying to make was that it doesn't matter how loyal the Dominion soldiers are to Mengsk, it's not complete and unquestioned loyalty. Soldiers are people, not machines. Therefore, they're not just going to blindly follow orders without even the slightest protest or anything.**

**In the case with Madison, I had wanted to show there are still intelligent people in the Dominion. I'm sure a lot of people were frustrated in the "Welcome to the Jungle" mission because the Tal'darim kept sealing up the Terrazine altars and all. Well now you get to see despite the sealing, there might actually be a way around that.**

**With regards to what is happening on Char, I did some thinking on the matter. Among the biggest questions I struggled over for a while was the Zerg presence still there.**** Eventually I decided to take a slightly different path than Blackhole1's "Her Body's Plaything".**

**Now, in response to why there's still so much Zerg on Char, you have to look at it with two main views:**

**1. Right now we don't really know what the Xel'Naga artifact is supposed to do. Sure it killed Zerg with its energy nova, but that may not be its designed purpose. And it certainly wasn't meant to be used as a means to cure Kerrigan of her infestation. Back in Blizzcon 2010, this had been addressed quite clearly: "Do you really think someone would have built this device just so thousands of years later when Kerrigan gets infested this relic would reverse all that and restore her humanity? That's a little too Deux Ex Machina."**

**2. Because we don't really know just what the artifact is really used for, it is also safe to assume that the way that it had been wielded on Char (with the power gizmos and everything) wasn't the proper way. In fact, just because the terrans thought it had reached full power, that's only from their point of view. It doesn't have to mean the artifact is _really_ at full power.**

**When these two reasons are combined together, that would mean the energy nova we saw that deinfested Kerrigan was actually a lot less powerful than what people thought it would be. Even in the final cinematic when Raynor was carrying Kerrigan across the ashes of Char you could see the artifact did not kill all the Zerg, as up in the air Dominion BattleCruisers were still fighting the Zerg flyers.**

**For that reason I did not have the energy nova kill off the whole Zerg population on Char. Don't worry, this will have significance later on in the fic as well.**

**And finally in the last part of the fic, well let's just say I'm building up the suspense. Now that we have finally reached Aiur, confrontation with the Protoss leaders is now inevitable. Raynor may have been able to speak for his own people, but he can't speak for the Protoss, and the opinions they have on Kerrigan will certainly conflict him.**

* * *

**Ok so that's enough of an A/N from me.**

**Please read and review and I'll see you next time!**


	37. Chapter 37

**Author's Note: Hey guys! I managed to get the next chapter up slightly sooner than expected. With work and family, writing is becoming more and more difficult, so please bear with me. Even so it's still my intent to continue on with this fic, so don't worry about that part.**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!**

* * *

Chapter 37

**Antioch, Aiur**

Mohandar watched from his Void Ray as the combined might of terran and Protoss fire rained down on the Antioch Water Reservoirs. Despite the heavy concentration of Zerg flyers in the area, they were behaving in accordance to the tendencies of the Protoss warrior, which was by glorious combat in proximity. As such, despite the fact there were 85 million Zerg defenders, along with the hundreds of Spore Cannons, protecting the reservoirs, virtually none of them were deployed in high orbit.

This was something the terran Jim Raynor had quickly pointed out when his ship was nearing the Protoss capital city. Although many Protoss warriors still wanted to fight the Zerg in hand to hand combat, many were quickly convinced that they will still have that opportunity, as the largest Zerg concentration on Aiur had yet to be eradicated: the defenders around the rotting mass of the Overmind itself.

As the initial strategy for assaulting Antioch was to destroy the water reservoirs and drawn the Zerg due to their inability to adapt to the water, it took only minor effort on Raynor's part to convince many of the Carriers and Motherships to move away from the city and back into high orbit. Together with the terran ships known as BattleCruisers, firing what they called plasma torpedoes, the Protoss capital ships unleashed concentrated fire from high above, while smaller terran ships they called Vikings, sharing a slight similarity to the designs of Scouts and Phoenixes, were deployed to defend them against any Zerg flyer attacks.

Although initially Mutalisks and Corruptors had shot down many of these Vikings, the number of Zerg flyer attacks dwindled. This was due to the fact that in order to better reinforce the Zerg numbers at the reservoirs, many of the Hatcheries, Lairs, and Hives had positioned near there. As a result, it also meant that when the high orbit bombardment began, these Zerg buildings came under heavy fire, and many were destroyed this way. There were still some that remained, but they were unable to hatch their cocoons at the rate required and therefore unable to send up sufficient numbers of flyers to confront the terran and Protoss ships and threaten the bombardment.

By now, although the walls had been reinforced with Zerg creep and thus made the reservoirs exceedingly difficult to destroy, the continued attacks from the terran and Protoss ships had clearly taken its toll. Some of the smaller water reservoirs had already been blown open, and water was beginning to flood into Antioch. Many of the Zerg defenders there were forced to withdraw immediately, while the less fortunate ones simply drowned to death.

Despite the fact that the flow of water into the city was only moderate, by now it was clear to most of the Zerg still entrenched in Antioch that they had to find a way to break out of the Protoss capital. Many of the Zerglings, Roaches, Lurkers and Hydralisks burrowed into the earth, but wherever the water could flow, it would simply fill their hide outs, and the Zerg creatures drowned.

The Zerg creep on the other hand is a different matter. Unlike other Zerg creatures and buildings, it was capable of growing over water, and thus allowing Zerg ground creatures safe passage over the deadly substance. As such, when the water flowed over it, the creep did not recede, to the dismay of most Protoss warriors. However, this was compensated by the destruction of the Zerg Creep Tumors that generate the creep, and those were vulnerable to the water. As had been seen all too often on Aiur, each time a creep generating building was destroyed, such as a Creep Tumor or Hatchery, all of the Zerg creep around it would recede, and this was still the case at Antioch.

The Zerg Queens made no attempt to rebuild the Creep Tumors. Like all Zerg creatures, the Queens couldn't adapt to the water either, and therefore had to join all surviving Zerg to break out of the ancient Protoss city. However, unlike the Zergling, Hydralisk, Lurker, Roach, Infestor and Ultralisk, the Queens move extremely slowly if the creep underneath them is removed, and this gave them virtually no chance at all of survival when it came to trying to outrun the water. In frustration, Zerg Overlords were called to the area to transport the Queens away, but with so many Zerg desperate to escape the water and only stopping to fight the Protoss if they're in the way, it left many Protoss Stalkers and Sentries free to target the Overlords.

Nevertheless, while the water from the reservoirs wreaked havoc on the Zerg ground creatures, the fact remained that it could do nothing about the Zerg flyers. As Stalkers blinked into position to open fire on the Overlords, they were immediately targeted by Mutalisks flying from above. Brood Lords were useless in this situation as their broodlings couldn't adapt to the water, and therefore would leave the Brood Lords as nothing more than defenseless targets. Corruptors were thus used to attack the Scouts and Phoenixes, also moving into the area to attack the Overlords, and their corruption ability proved as deadly as ever, many of the Protoss ships falling victim to that, before being shot down by the Corruptors' parasite spores.

This in turn allowed many of the Queen transporting Overlords to escape the net, but to make it out of the city still proved difficult. As the Overlords knew that the best chance of survival lay within the vast numbers of other Zerg, they all headed in the direction that the Zerg ground creatures were moving towards. Further back and away from the Antioch Water Reservoirs, many of the Protoss Carriers that remained behind and had not taken part in the orbital bombardment were positioned at the city's exits. Just as the Zerg had used these corridors as choke points in the hopes to channel the Protoss into killing zones, now the roles had been reversed with the Protoss using them to prevent the Zerg from escaping. Many of the Roaches had initially thought that due to their ability to move while burrowed would allow them to overcome this difficulty, but this was quickly proved to be wishful thinking as Admiral Urun and his Phoenix fleet were also positioned in this area with Observers, and any movement from burrowed Zerg would immediately attract their attention, to be pulled right out of the ground via their graviton beams.

Many of the Overlords had dropped off their Queens near this position, and together with Hydralisks, had hoped to shoot the Phoenixes and Carriers out of the sky regardless of their numbers, but this was being constantly frustrated by the continued interference of Protoss Corsairs, using their disruption web abilities to imprison the Zerg creatures in it, while the Carrier Interceptors slaughtered them from above as the disruption web ability prevented the Hydralisks and Queens to attack as long as they were trapped in it.

As such, more and more Zerg Scourges were sent into the area to rectify this problem. As they were so effective against the Carriers and very easy to produce due to their simple genetic makeup, many of them were used in suicidal attacks against the Protoss capital ships, knowing that this would divert the attention of the Phoenixes and Corsairs to deal with the flying creatures, and this in turn would allow greater numbers of Zerg to escape the city despite the deadly gauntlet that they had to run.

It has certainly proved effective, as while this strategy had was leading to the expenditure of hundreds of Scourges every hour, if not more, it has nevertheless forced the Phoenixes and Corsairs away from their normal duties, and from the Observer reports Mohandar was seeing, hundreds of thousands of Zerg were escaping Antioch on an hourly basis, most of them heading towards the Overmind's corpse and joining up with the 600 million Zerg defenders already entrenched there.

This was certainly not what he had wanted. Indeed, all of the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss had wanted to slay all the Zerg in Antioch where they stand, instead of giving them a chance to fight another day. Nevertheless, the Dark Templar quickly saw sense in Jim Raynor's logic, that because the Zerg ranks could be replaced so easily in comparison to those of the terrans and Protoss, it is better to some of the Zerg to escape the net than risk the lives of more Protoss warriors. Each Protoss warrior lost only makes it that much harder when the time came to clear the last of the Zerg from Aiur, and Mohandar knew that assault the final resting site of the Overmind itself will prove to be the most difficult task of all.

From what he had learned from Artanis during the time he had spent with the terran, it took little effort for Mohandar to believe the Hierarch's words that there is more to terrans than what meets the eye. Unlike Urun, Mohandar was much quicker to see that superior strength and numbers alone were not enough to prevail in battles, and Jim Raynor's victory on Char was a testament to that.

With the former Queen of Blades on his ship called the Hyperion, the Nerazim knew that it would not be long before the risk of internal conflict began with the Protoss. Only a year ago, Mohandar had been part of the Hierarchy meeting to discuss the matter of Zamara, a Protoss Preserver. Selendis had accompanied a young terran female called Rosemary Dahl there, accompanied by the young Protoss survivor Vartanil.

Although he had recommended Artanis to reach a decision, Mohandar was none too pleased when Selendis had pressed the matter of bringing Khalai Protoss to the sanctuary of Ehlna, as the Alys'aril Nexus forged by the Nerazims and therefore only they should be allowed to go. The Dark Templar was further frustrated by the fact that Dahl was allowed to go as well, as he had pointed out that the Protoss were not done evaluating her, as Kerrigan had left a bitter impression on both Khalai and Nerazim Protoss alike of terran female tendencies and treacheries.

Although Dahl had indeed helped the Protoss there and saved most of the treasures from the sanctuary, the fact remained that virtually all Protoss still distrusted female terrans. Seeing the former Queen of Blades again would certainly spark such hatred, and Mohandar had no doubt that it was possible that some Protoss may not be able to control their hate for Kerrigan, despite orders from Artanis that she was not to be killed given the ancient Xel'Naga prophecy.

Artanis was correct, however, in that the Protoss has only known her as the Queen of Blades, and not what she was like before that. Although history goes a long way in Protoss traditions, Mohandar eventually agreed that after seeing the behavior of Zerg infestation on terrans and how they act normally, it was entirely possible that Kerrigan was a very different person prior to the Zerg infestation. For that reason, the Nerazim hoped that the order would go out to begin the assault on the Overmind's grave as soon as possible. Given what he had seen from Zeratul's ihan crystal, mighty Tassadar would still be there.

Of course, Mohandar had another reason than to see the legendary hero of the Protoss. According to Artanis during his mission to retrieve Tassadar on Char and bring him back to Aiur to be judged by the Conclave, Tassadar had been on the very world that the Zerg had attacked when Kerrigan was taken by them and transformed into the Queen of Blades. If so, then Tassadar is the only Protoss that has seen what she was like before her infestation, and therefore would be able to explain what Kerrigan is truly like.

For now however, his attention remained the purging of the Zerg from Antioch. Once the terrans have securely settled on Aiur and mobilized their forces, Mohandar hoped that would be the sign for Artanis to order the assault on the Overmind's grave.

* * *

**Bel'Shir**

"How much longer before the amplifiers before functional?" Madison demanded.

"We're going as fast as we can, general," an engineer answered. "If all goes well, in another 10 to 20 minutes."

"Make it sooner," the general ordered. "We may not have that long. The ghosts are moving into position as we speak."

"Yes, sir," came the reply, and Madison turned his head back towards the direction of the terrazine altars. With so little military strength left, he knew this was their last chance to acquire the substance for Mengsk. Orbital scans had confirmed that while most of the Tal'darim had left Bel'Shir, a small force remained behind to look after their "Breath of Creation".

The force was relatively small in number, and this would not have presented much of a problem during their initial landing on the moon. However, as the situation stands now, it is more than enough to wipe out all of Madison's remaining military forces with ease, no matter how fiercely they resisted.

As such, when Madison came up with the plan in distracting the Protoss, there was almost immediate consensus. After the appalling losses in confronting the Tal'darim when they had first landed, no one was particularly interested in fighting them again. Instead, Madison hoped to use the elements of nature to provide cover for them.

As Bel'Shir was a jungle moon, there were numerous waterfalls located all over the moon's surface. Fortunately for the Dominion forces, a few of them were located near the terrazine altars. Although only one of them was actually considered a large waterfall, that was enough for the general and his plans of putting sound amplifiers near the cascades.

While the initial attempt to collect the terrazine had been a failure, Madison had nevertheless learned something from the scanning of the terrazine altars. The scans had indicated collecting the terrazine from the altars wasn't as simple as collecting vespene gas from the refineries. Because the altars were a significantly different design compared to what SCVs are used to, it also meant a longer period of time would be needed to collect a terrazine canister from it each time the harvesting process began. This meant that not only was it necessary to protect the ghosts as they tried to deactivate the psionic energy and open the terrazine altar, but each and every SCV had to be protected during the harvesting process, which no one seemed to know how long that would take.

Given the sounds of the SCVs working as they begin collecting the terrazine, Madison had no doubt that this would attract Protoss attention. Scans from the BattleCruisers had indicated that with all the altars in their landing area sealed, there were no Protoss nearby because they felt there was no longer any risk of anyone tampering with their altars. Thus as soon as the terrazine collecting process began, the Tal'darim would know that there were intruders on Bel'Shir, and would mobilize against them.

For that reason, Madison had hoped that by using the sound amplifiers and positioning them near the waterfalls, the sounds of the cascades would drown out the mechanical sound waves the SCVs would produce when they're extracting the terrazine from the altars. If this plan works, the SCV Corps here would be able to obtain all the terrazine without any of the Tal'darim noticing. This of course also meant that none of the Dominion infantry assigned to protect the SCV as it works stir up a scene, but Madison doubted that would be a problem given all that's happened during the initial attempt.

Of course, none of this would matter if the theory to open the sealed altars proved wrong, and in this situation the general had no backup plan. All he could hope was that the theory would be correct. This was why he was urging the Dominion engineers to get the sound amplifiers online as quickly as possible. Given the fact that Protoss psionic powers were superior to those possessed by terran ghosts, it was probable that the Dominion agents would need to focus all of their psionic energy to deactivate the altar seal, including the energy needed to cloak via the hostile environment suit.

This would render the ghost completely defenseless while trying to open the sealed altar, and may not have the energy left to fight even after breaking the seal. Yet using Medivac Dropships to evacuate them was out of the question, as they would be immediately spotted by the Tal'darim. Thus the remaining Dominion Vulture bikes had to play a secondary role as transporter, much to the annoyance of their drivers.

"General, the amplifiers are online now," a Dominion engineer reported over the radio. "The charging sequence will be completed in a few minutes, and we'll be good to go."

"Very well," Madison replied. "Once I give the order for the ghosts to head for the altars, maintain total radio silence under any and all circumstances unless I order otherwise. We send too many transmissions off, the Protoss will be likely to intercept them and pinpoint our location. We cannot allow that to happen."

* * *

**Antioch, Aiur**

Sarah gripped Jim's hand tightly as their Dropship reached the outskirts of Antioch. Thanks to the continuous bombardment from the BattleCruisers, Carriers, and Motherships, the city's water reservoirs have all been blown, and huge amounts of water were flooding the ancient capital. Any ground based Zerg unfortunate enough to still be there had either drowned, or slaughtered by Protoss forces. Zerg flyers didn't last long either, as with their ground support taken out the Protoss could turn their full attention to them, and they had emptied the city as fast as they could fly.

Despite the best efforts from the Protoss, approximately 8.8 million Zerg were nevertheless able to escape the net and successfully break out of Antioch, most of them joining up with the Zerg defenders at the Overmind's grave. According to the reports from Protoss Observers, millions more from the scattered Zerg over Aiur were also heading in that direction.

To Jim, it was clear that even with the combined might of terran and Protoss, expelling the Zerg from there will prove to be extremely difficult. The three Zerg Leviathans in particular will most likely the biggest thorn of all.

Unlike the one he had encountered on the orbital platform during the Char invasion, the Leviathans here were much bigger in comparison. Given the fact that the smaller one on Char was capable of summoning an entire Zerg air army had it been given the time to, Jim knew there was absolutely no telling what the larger Leviathans were capable of.

To make matters worse, Matt had just reported to him from the Hyperion that the Zerg forces there were already anticipating such a strike, and were mobilizing accordingly. The Hatcheries, Lairs, and Hives were spawning Zerg Larvae at an alarming rate, with Zerg Queens using their abilities to inject their own blood into the Zerg structures, thus increasing the rate of larvae production. Although the mobilization process was only a few hours old, hundreds of thousands of Zerg creatures had already been hatched from the cocoons, and this would only worsen with every passing moment.

It was exactly this thinking that got Jim to order the liberated prisoners to be pressed into service. As Nova had said, upon checking the profiles of the prison inmates, it was found that less than 200 of them actually matched the descriptions of the psychopathic killers the blond ghost had told him about. Hundreds more were scientists, philosophers, and free thinkers, which was exactly what Nova said they were upon joining the Raiders.

But it was the status of the other prisoners that became important to Jim for his revolution. Despite being used as miners and workers to mine out the elements needed for neosteel production, along with the fact that they were mostly expendable, leading to the deaths of thousands of workers on a daily basis, it would appear that the Dominion security teams still had some limits of morality for these prisoners.

With more than 1.8 million of them liberated, it was certainly no easy task to determine what faction they belonged to. However, it didn't take long before it was discovered that more than 98 percent of the liberated prisoners were once soldiers. Warfield explained that due to the extreme conditions of the mines, each worker's strength, stamina, and endurance levels has to be much higher than the average Dominion miner. If not, they will be too easily killed by falling debris, cave-ins, and so on. It was the reason why enemy soldiers of the Dominion were used in this manner, as Mengsk hoped they would be able to last longer in the mines and extract the goods.

Matt, however, was still hesitant on using these liberated prisoners, as after being in Dominion captivity for so long as treated as expendable assets, there could be many who could be completely out of control and blinded by their sheer hatred.

He wasn't wrong about such a concern either. The liberated prisoners comprised of mercenaries, pirates, scoundrels, spies, criminals, and murderers. Some of them were free lancers. Others were Umojan soldiers, Kel-Morian soldiers, former Dominion soldiers that spoke out against Mengsk, and even soldiers of the former Confederacy.

Fortunately, Jim had already thought of such a situation. After explaining to them how badly the Dominion had treated them under Mengsk's rule, he offered them a deal: if they agree to join the Raiders for his revolution, all of them will be given the opportunity to be to take the fight to Mengsk. He said that there is no telling when that could happen due to the fact that the Zerg currently represent a greater threat to the Dominion, and that they will first have to help the Protoss in their times of need. Only when their homeworld has been fully cleared of the Zerg will there be any consideration in turning their attention back to toppling Mengsk from his Dominion throne.

Surprisingly enough, most of the prisoners gave little signs of resisting such an idea. One of them had spoken out, saying that they had been under some of the cruelest Dominion treatments for years. At this point, most of the prisoners didn't care _who_ liberated them and what they wanted in return, as long as they were given the opportunity to take their revenge on the Dominion. Another had pointed out that as long as they weren't going to be treated as cannon fodder for the big guns, they would gladly fight alongside the Raiders. A further prisoner had said that many of them had waited for years for their chance of retribution against Mengsk, so obviously they would have the patience to wait a little while longer.

With the prisoners secured and now as soldiers for his Raiders, Jim knew he now had the force necessary to help the Protoss on Aiur. Some of the prisoners had shown him the structural support beams for the mines, and his engineers had detonated huge amounts of explosives in the designated locations. The mines on New Folsom are now all buried, and even under ideal conditions, it would take the Dominion at least six months before they are able to begin mining for neosteel elements in there again.

Nova had ensured that the Dominion would never be able to quickly restore their industrial buildings by method of nuclear strike. Using a tactical nuclear warhead, she had aimed it at the Dominion production centers, processing facilities, and munitions factories located next to the mine. Although the radiation from it would quickly dissipate, all of the Dominion buildings on New Folsom had been destroyed, and Warfield's engineers deemed it would be years before they could be fully rebuilt. A second tactical nuke was used on the underground facility that Dr. Saunders was working in, ensuring that the Dominion secret weapon projects be halted in their tracks.

Indeed, with the success of the New Folsom raid, the Raiders had made off with some 400 Minotaur-Class BattleCruisers, along with vast qualities of military ground and air vehicles, the ammunition to go with them, as well as huge amounts of the necessary ore for further neosteel production. Nevertheless, while an impressive force, and certainly one to be reckoned with, it was still considered weak in comparison to the Dominion Armada. It would certainly give the Dominion fleet a very bloody nose, but such a course of action would require Jim to pit his entire force against the Dominion, with orders to fight to the death, and even then it wouldn't be enough to fully destroy the Dominion military arm.

Given the fact that rallying other worlds that are sympathetic to the Raiders cause would take too long, it was his hope that the Protoss could aid him in toppling Mengsk and his corrupt government.

"All right everyone, we've reached the landing site. Beginning our descent now," the Dropship pilot announced. "Looks like the Protoss welcoming party has already arrived to greet us."

Sarah suddenly gripped Jim's hand harder as she looked out from the Dropship window. As the ship began to land, she could make out the individual Protoss waiting for them on the ground. A group of High Templars were present, flanked on their sides by Zealots and Stalkers. And in front of them, leading them towards the designated landing site, was Zeratul.

No words of comfort Jim could say to her now would have any effect in calming Sarah. While she had known all along that she and Zeratul would have to cross paths again at some point after her de-infestation, she was not looking forward to the meeting at all. After what had happened to Raszagal on that fateful day on Char, she knew nothing she did could make up for what she had forced Zeratul to do. She had seen the visions from the ihan crystal, of Zeratul's discovery on Aiur about why the Overmind had infested her all those years ago, but to Sarah, this meant absolutely nothing. The Xel'Naga prophecy was the only reason why she was still alive right now, and after the suffering she had caused Zeratul, Kerrigan had no doubt that the instant she had served her purpose, or if the prophecy was proved false, the Dark Templar prelate would kill her.

Unknown to Sarah, Jim was thinking the exact same thing. Despite assurances from Artanis that Sarah was not to be killed on sight, he knew it was too much to ask the Hierarch to give the same assurance once she had done her part. His encounter with Zeratul on the Hyperion shortly after he had acquired a fragment of the Xel'Naga artifact on Xil did not reassure him either, as although the Protoss warrior had said only Sarah could save them all, justice still demanded her death for her crimes.

Thus Jim knew that it was essential to begin the assault on the Overmind's corpse as soon as possible. He was uncomfortable to see Sarah fighting alongside Protoss, but it was the only way in which she could find redemption in their eyes.

* * *

**Author's Note: Again, the ending here is to keep building up the suspense until Kerrigan has to confront the Protoss face to face, which will be very soon from now.**

**I looked over Blackhole1's "Her Body's Plaything", specifically for the three cliffhangers he gave at the end of chapters 17, 18, and 19. And I thought to myself, well two can play that game.**

**Anyways, I hope you guys review. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next chapter.**


	38. Chapter 38

**Author's Note: Hey guys! I'm back with a new chapter. This one took a little bit of thinking to get done****, but I managed to get it worked out. I know you guys didn't like the fact that the last chapter ended on a cliffhanger, so this one will end with a little bit more closure (maybe not as much as you hope for though). The building towards the suspense is still there, as I'm still working out all the details, but it'll be coming up very soon.**

**In the meantime, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and hopefully review. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time.**

* * *

Chapter 38

**Dominion Facility, Undisclosed Location**

General Ridgeway walked down the ramp of his Dropship, joining the rest of the Dominion marines and other infantrymen on the ground. Dominion transport trucks were moving back and forth, shipping the Protoss stones that had been so painstakingly excavated from Aiur to their destination. With the exception of the Gestalts, almost all of the surviving Dominion personnel were being helped by medics into the few empty transport trucks that could be spared, as their injuries and sheer battle fatigue after fighting the Protoss had pushed them to their limits. The medics had assured the general that his boys will be taken care of at the hospital, and Ridgeway responded that he would eventually visit them there, as he had promised them answers about why Mengsk has sent them to Aiur on an excavation operation in the first place.

He had more than one reason in hoping for Madison to be successful in getting the components Mengsk wanted. Although he knew that most of his men had little patience left and wanted answers, he also knew they were willing to wait it out until they had recovered at the hospital. However, if Madison failed in his mission, then it's likely that Mengsk would call on him to do what Madison could not, and that would be a total disaster.

According to what Mengsk had told him shortly after arriving at the Dominion installation, the Protoss on the moon of Bel'Shir, where Madison was, proved to be much more ruthless compared to what Ridgeway had gone up against. As such, the general was sympathetic towards him. On Aiur, Ridgeway had the benefit of most of the Protoss being distracted by battling it out with the Zerg all over the planet, while Madison on the other hand had no such luck. Ridgeway also had the benefit of defending a position from the Protoss, whereas Madison had to actually assault Protoss fortifications. Regardless of enemy strength and effectiveness, defending a position is always easier compared to attacking it, and that made Madison's task that much harder.

For Ridgeway, he had seen enough of his boys get slaughtered by the Protoss in the Aiur mission as it is, the last thing he wanted was to be ordered to go to Bel'Shir, where he'd have to give orders to feed more Dominion troops into the mincing machine. True, the vast majority of Dominion marines, firebats, marauders, reapers, and other military personnel were murdering psychopaths taken from prisons and penal systems, but unlike Mengsk, Ridgeway did not see them as expendable assets.

Of course in times of war there will always be casualties, but murderers or not, the Dominion troops are still human beings, not just meat for the big guns and fed into the slaughterhouse. With each military operation, there comes a point where the casualties sustained simply becomes unacceptable, and the benefits no longer outweigh the costs. Ridgeway could only hope what his men had died for on Aiur truly was for the greater good.

Of course, after everything that has happened since the Zerg invasion began, the greater good now had different definitions to different people. Prior to it, most of the Dominion military had stood behind Mengsk, believing that he would keep the Koprulu sector safe for humanity, and would build an empire in the name of the Terran Dominion that would prosper for all time. After the Korhal debacle, the Dominion is barely holding itself together. The rioting on Korhal and other Dominion controlled worlds may have mostly died down by now, but the tensions remained. To compound matters, Raynor and his Raiders were sending agents to some of those worlds, looking for anyone who would be sympathetic to their cause, and rallying more support for his revolution.

Ridgeway knew this was clearly increasing the tensions, and although the Dominion was still in control of the core worlds, the control there was nevertheless slipping away. Many of the Dominion fringe worlds have already been lost and declared themselves independent colonies, and right now no one is quite sure how to persuade them to reintegrate themselves back into the Dominion.

On the core worlds, the people's opinions were beginning to change from the way they were once thinking. Reports coming in from Dominion security forces have clearly indicated that more and more citizens were asking themselves what exactly they had been supporting all those years ago when the Terran Dominion was first formed. Indeed, the most frequent question asked in those cases was did they support the Dominion, or did they support Emperor Mengsk.

This was to be expected by the general, as questions of a similar nature had been raised by his troops after Raynor's victory on Char. Although still afraid of reprisal, a few have pointed out that upon entering the Dominion military, they had all sworn an oath. However, that oath was to protect the Dominion itself, not Mengsk. Normally this would be considered treason, but luckily for them, right now Mengsk needed all the support he could get, especially that of the military since it was upon them that the emperor hoped to regain control of the situation.

Just then, a Dominion ghost suddenly materialized out of thin air next to the general, snapping off a salute. "General Ridgeway, it's good to see you survived the operation unharmed, sir."

Ridgeway saluted back. "Maybe not physically, soldier. Mentally is quite another matter."

"I know you wanted some answers regarding the Protoss stones you had acquired on Aiur."

"I do. All emperor Mengsk said was that they will help him in his plan to regain control of the Dominion worlds that had turned against him, nothing more. My boys want it a little bit more specific than that."

The ghost nodded. "The Protoss are a psionic race, everything they've ever built has used some degree of psionic energy as a power source. These stones you've excavated are no exception."

"They're also psionically stronger than us," Ridgeway countered. "Are these stones part of the emperor's plan to make the terran race stronger than them or something?"

"No, the emperor has something different in store, and the stones you've brought here is a key element in that plan. Please follow me, sir."

"Where are we going?" the general asked.

"The stones are currently being analyzed by the top Dominion scientists and engineers here so that we can get all the knowledge we have out of it," the ghost replied, as the two of them began walking towards a huge Dominion facility in the distance. "The answers you want will be based off that data, which is classified information. However, for your services, Mengsk believes you have to right to understand some aspects of it."

* * *

**Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char**

Channeling his psionic powers, Ulrezaj teleported a group of Zealots behind the masses of Zerglings, where they were ripped apart by their psionic blades. From under him, dark shadow tendrils moved along the ground, and Roaches and Hydralisks unfortunate enough to be within range to be strangled to death by them.

Despite the requests of the Tal'darim for him not to engage the Zerg, Ulrezaj knew this was not possible. There were still more than enough Zerg in the primary hive cluster to wipe out his entire warband, and he needed the Tal'darim alive for his purposes. Each Protoss warrior killed here was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to replace, and thus he had to protect as many of them as he could, instead of treating them as expendable assets.

So far, the assault on the hive cluster was going according to plan. Although still very capable in defense, by combining his power of teleportation with the fanatical fighting ability of the Tal'darim, it lead to the deaths of countless Zerg as they were simply not prepared for this type of fighting style, with the Protoss constantly popping up from behind them as Ulrezaj's teleportation had a much longer range in comparison to the blink ability of the Stalker, which the Zerg were more used to encountering.

Other Archons had joined him and were fighting along his side, hunting down the Zerg Infestors. Although they could not match his movement speed, this was not necessary as the Infestors moved at an even slower pace. As energy creatures, the Infestor's neural parasite ability had no effect on them, and the Dark Archon had ordered that these Zerg creatures be amongst top priority to be killed to prevent them from turning the Tal'darim against one another. The Zerg had anticipated this, and had positioned Ultralisks near the Infestors to protect them, but Ulrezaj used his own dark psionic blasts to quickly kill the Zerg behemoths.

In the air, the Mutalisks continued to offer heavy resistance towards the advancing Protoss ground warriors, but as their glaive wurm attacks were not energy attacks, this had no effect on the Dark Archon. Thus it was the simple matter of channeling his psionic powers and casting dark psionic storms, to which the Zerg flyers stood little chance against.

Nevertheless, Ulrezaj knew of the precautions he also had to take. Despite his immense power, he was far from invulnerable, which had been clearly demonstrated during his attempt to capture Zamara on Aiur, and then again on Ehlna, where he had been weakened in the former's case by the relentless Zerg attacks. Although they were not as effective in harming him compared to Protoss energies, the sheer number of Zerg here would compensate for that deficiency.

Zerg Queens had moved into the area to use their transfusion ability to heal the wounded Zerg, but Ulrezaj used his maelstrom ability to temporarily freeze them in their place, where many were slaughtered by High Templars, taking this opportunity to move into position and casting psionic storms. Those that survived fought tenaciously, using their claws to great effect, but other High Templars used their feedback ability to drain the Queens' energies and weakening them further, where they were sliced apart by advancing Zealots.

Roaches moved in rapidly against the Colossi, and despite many of them being burned to ashes by tower walkers' thermal lances, enough were able to get within range to unleash their acid saliva on them. This had forced many of the walkers to fall back so they could use their thermal lances more effectively, and thus put a heavier strain on Zealots, now being forced to attack Spine Crawlers without their heavy support.

Carriers were mobilized to counter this problem, but the Zerg Scourge in the area remained numerous, and most of the golden ships were only able to achieve minor success before being forced to retreat to recharge their plasma shields. The most Ulrezaj could help out in this situation was use his teleportation skills to move the Carriers back quickly, as the Dark Archon was vulnerable to the plasma metamorphosis attacks of the Scourge. Although the small Zerg creatures were meant to attack aerial opponents, a nearby explosion would nevertheless do harm Ulrezaj. The only way to stop the flow of Scourge was to destroy the Zerg Spires, but they were all located deep in the hive cluster. Attempts to mass recall Protoss warriors behind the Zerg lines with Motherships were suicidal, as the Mothership would have to get within position first, and there were simply too many Spore Crawlers in the way to allow that to happen.

Continuing to channel his psionic powers and blasting apart the individual Zerg creatures, Ulrezaj wondered to what purpose Duran had in sending him to the volcanic world. Despite the vast numbers of Zerg falling with every passing moment, the advance towards the primary hive cluster was still slower than expected, and too many Tal'darim warriors would be too fatigued to fight on if this continued. Although Duran had insisted that the losses on Char would be worth the cost, the Dark Archon had yet to even see what he was after.

If the losses continued at this rate, he would consider ordering the Protoss Carriers into high orbit and using their energy beams on a smaller scale, thus burning the hive cluster to cinders, despite Duran had warned him not to as it would also destroy what he hoped to collect on Char.

Of course, Duran was not his master, the Dark Voice was, and if the situation became critical enough, he would consult with the Dark Voice, hoping he would agree for a faster cut through to the objective.

* * *

**En Route to Scion Province, Aiur**

"Jim, this is utter insanity," Nova said under her breath, as she walked alongside the rebel commander and Sarah, with Protoss Zealots walking alongside them. "You can say all you want about how sometimes crazy works, but this is far too insane even by your standards."

"Be realistic, Nova," Jim replied. "What did you think was going to happen after we landed on Aiur? Artanis may have given the order that Sarah was not to be killed, but after everything that's happened, you really think they were just going to forgive her on the spot?"

"No, I had expected them to come after her head the second we won on Char, regardless of what the prophecy had said. Sarah told me all about what she had done to them when she was the Queen of Blades. I'm actually surprised they obeyed such an order."

"It is why I agreed to Zeratul's proposal to speak to the rest of the Protoss Hierarchy. They aren't even fully convinced of the Xel'Naga prophecy yet, let alone about Sarah. To make matters worse, I still don't know how hard I can press my case, since the Protoss are created by the Xel'Naga, so it doesn't give me much room to judge."

"You told me the Sarah was the first female terran they encountered, and that turned out horribly for them," Nova pointed out. "Why bring me along for the ride in speaking to them?"

"History is vital to them. The Queen of Blades left a very bitter impression on the Protoss about terran females, it's why I'm hoping you could set an example to them not all women are like that."

"You think they'll believe it?"

"Not at first," Jim answered. "But it's the same with as I told Sarah: you fight alongside them long enough, they'll learn to trust you."

"I just hope I live long enough to see that," the blond ghost grumbled. "The experience of fighting Protoss is not something I look forward to doing again."

Behind them, Sarah walked on, lost in her own thoughts. The reception so far had actually been much better than she had expected, as none of the Protoss warriors had decided to cut her head off the moment she exited the Dropship. Zeratul had only exchanged a few words with Jim regarding speaking to the Protoss Hierarchy, before vanishing in a cloud of black smoke. Right now, the three of them were being escorted to Scion, recaptured by the Protoss during the early stages to reclaim Aiur from the Zerg. Most of the city was in ruins, but one of the old citadels remained intact enough for the Hierarchy to hold council there, at least for the time being.

This only worsened Kerrigan's fear, despite the fact she had already accepted her fate of death once she had served her purpose in the role of preventing Armageddon. Deep down, a part of her still hoped that something could be done for her to earn redemption in the Protoss' eyes, but the rational part of her knew this was wishful thinking. Billions of Protoss were dead because of her, not just on Aiur and Shakuras, but on numerous other worlds as well. She doubted any of the Protoss Hierarchy would see her as anything more than a mass murderer with an insatiable lust for power and dominance.

However, she made no attempt to read the minds of the Protoss Zealots, High Templars, and Stalkers escorting her, Jim, and Nova. She didn't want to know what they were thinking, as more than likely she would find resentment for being ordered to protect a mass murderer against other Protoss in the event they were unable to control their hatred for the former Queen of Blades, as well as anger for having their minds violated.

Nevertheless, that didn't mean she could control her own mind of the nervousness and fear that plagued her, as she simply didn't know how the Protoss Hierarchy would react to her, and she was very pessimistic about the outcome. In fact, despite what she had learned about her role on the prophecy, she had a feeling that once she entered the citadel to face the Hierarchy members, she wouldn't be coming out alive. Not that she believed she deserved to live after all the pain and misery she caused, but she simply couldn't get her mind off the anticipated meeting with them.

"James Raynor, we are approaching the outskirts of Scion province," a High Templar announced. "The Protoss Hierarchy have all gathered there, along with Zeratul and other high ranking Protoss."

"Where is the citadel they wanted to speak to us at?" Jim asked.

"Near the central part of the city. As you are the only one who has known what the former Queen of Blades was like prior to her infestation, Artanis has convinced the rest of the Hierarchy to listen to what you have to say about her."

Jim nodded slowly, knowing how big of an uphill battle this is going to be. It took every ounce of diplomacy he had just to convince Artanis to give Sarah the benefit of the doubt one more time, instead of just having her killed the moment she had done her part. However, in Artanis's case the commander had an advantage: the two of them had fought together during the Brood War four years ago. The same could not be said for the rest of the Hierarchy and other Protoss. Selendis may have known him for his services in aiding Aiur, but Jim was unsure of if the female executor would still feel the same way after he fought against her on Haven.

He had no doubt that even if they didn't know, Artanis would have surely told the other Hierarchy Protoss of his personal feelings for Sarah, and Jim knew he had to anticipate them accusing him that such feelings was affecting his judgment. Nevertheless, he refused to believe that he would be unable to convince them of seeing Sarah differently.

* * *

**Overmind's Corpse, Aiur**

From his position near the Overmind's corpse, the hybrid watched over the Zerg creatures as the fortification around their dead master continued. Drone production had also been increased, with many of them mutating into Spore and Spine Crawlers, while other Drones formed natural barriers by moving rocks and boulders into position, thus creating choke points for any attacker to go through. The Spine Crawlers are then positioned in such locations, so that when the attack began, the terrans and Protoss would be channeled into killing zones.

Unlike elsewhere on Aiur, some of the largest Zerg breeds had withdrawn to this area when it became clear the Protoss foothold could not be dislodged. Just about wherever he could see, Brutalisks and Omegalisks trundled along the creep infested ground, some of them accompanied by Devouring Ones and Hunter Killers. The most powerful of the Zerg Queens were here as well, some of them even stronger than the Ultralisk. And unlike the massive, specialized Queens with Protoss psionic abilities, these Queens were smaller, but were easier to breed, and more were being hatched from cocoons with each passing moment. The same was being done for Brutalisks and Omegalisks, but these creatures had to be bred from larvae, instead of the Large and Huge Queens, which are simply morphed from the standard Zerg Queens, and therefore were harder to breed.

On the other hand, the hybrid had initially tried to breed the special Queens like on Char, as they were almost the size of an Omegalisk, and much more powerful given the addition of Protoss psionic power. However this was quickly abandoned as too many Queens ended up killing themselves as the psionic powers proved too much for them to handle.

Nevertheless, the hybrid knew he had an impressive Zerg defense force under his command, growing stronger by the minute as Hatcheries, Lairs, and Hives churned out the larvae necessary. The three Zerg Leviathans in the air added their contributions to this, as aerial cocoons were launched from their mouths and other parts of their bodies, most of them erupting into Mutalisks, Corruptors, and Brood Lords. Other cocoons dropped onto the ground instead, hatching into Zerglings and Hydralisks to reinforce the Zerg ground creatures.

"You are doing well, young one," the hybrid tilted his head up to hear the Dark Voice speaking to him telepathically. "The Zerg you have mustered here is indeed a force to be reckoned with."

"I live only to obey your will, my master."

"Then I have another task for you to complete. A new psionic signature, something not of Protoss origin, has recently arrived on Aiur. Can you sense it?"

"I can, master. It's Kerrigan, she has come to the Protoss homeworld as well. It is probable that she is here to assist the Protoss in ridding the Zerg presence on Aiur."

"Then you know what you must now do. You and all of your brethren were preordained millennia ago, long before she even existed. You were all chosen for the role of my grand scheme in the cosmic order, and I will not allow that to be endangered, especially not by a feeble terran who was converted to the Overmind's pet and granted special powers in the hopes that she could eventually challenge me someday."

"That will never come to pass," the hybrid answered. "Kerrigan does not know of my presence here on Aiur, and that will leave her vulnerable when the terrans and Protoss attack here. When that time comes, I shall deal with her myself."


	39. Chapter 39

**Author's Note: Hey guys! Back with a new chapter now. Sorry if this took longer than you thought, but with the previous months of job hunting, well let's just say interviews and paperwork has really stacked up, and this is only going to continue in the upcoming weeks, and maybe even months.**

**But regardless, with the chapter done, I hope you guys enjoy it. For those of you who had read the book "The Dark Templar Saga Part 3: Twilight", you'll notice quite a few references here.**

* * *

Chapter 39

**Hierarchy Citadel, Scion Province, Aiur**

Zeratul stood within the confines of one of the citadel chambers, along with Selendis, Vartanil, and Ataldis. The members of Protoss Hierarchy were all in another chamber, as Artanis had called them to this meeting to discuss the matter regarding Kerrigan. She, along with James Raynor, would be arriving very soon, and the terran commander had brought along with him another terran female, claiming that other than the Zerg infestation, she and Kerrigan were very much alike.

It took little effort for the Nerazim to accept this, as no matter what the Protoss opinion was regarding female terrans, James Raynor had correctly pointed out that the Firstborn had only minor exposure to the other terran gender, and that Kerrigan's actions during her time as the Queen of Blades was not an accurate indication of the nature of all female terrans.

The new female terran under the name of Nova Terra certainly appeared to share similar characteristics as the former Queen of Blades. Although she did not possess Kerrigan's high psionic resonance, they were nevertheless significantly higher compared to the other terran psionic individuals he had encountered, and were steadily growing in power.

Of course, the blond terran's psionic abilities were still inferior compared to his own, and before departing for the citadel, Zeratul had briefly probed her mind, avoiding her mental defenses. It wasn't that he believed Raynor was lying about the female terran, but after what had happened to Raszagal, caution was necessary.

It was from what he had discovered in the blond terran's mind that quickly led Zeratul to believe that it could spark even greater tensions once James Raynor arrived to speak with the Protoss Hierarchy. Despite most of them were convinced of Kerrigan's role in the Xel'Naga prophecy, none were yet convinced that the former Queen of Blades should be given leniency for her actions once she had served her purpose, and the Nerazim knew it was likely that Selendis, Vartanil, and Ataldis would feel the same way.

Selendis in particular was still displeased with Raynor's actions on Haven, having been persuaded by the terran Hanson to contain the Zerg infestation without the need for purification by fire. Even though the Protoss there had confirmed that Hanson's actions have indeed contained the Zerg virus, the female executor remained uneasy about it, as there was no telling if or when that containment may fail given the nature of the virus. To compound matters, it had been confirmed that she was unable to remove the remaining Zerg blood that still resided in Kerrigan, and this led many Protoss to the conclusion that despite her appearance change, she was still infested. Given the threat she had posed when she was the Queen of Blades, this would only reinforce the Hierarchy of the continuing danger Kerrigan would still pose to them, and to all living beings.

In regards to what he had uncovered in the mind of Nova Terra, Zeratul briefly glimpsed at what the terrans had called ghost training. During the Brood War, Raynor had informed the Dark Templar that Kerrigan had undergone similar training prior to her infestation, and that the terran faction she had served under was exceedingly cruel to agents such as herself.

The nature of the training from what Zeratul had glimpsed was indeed brutal, and it led the Nerazim to wonder if this was exactly the same thing Kerrigan had gone through, perhaps it could offer further insight as to why the former Queen of Blades had acted the way she did during her time with the Zerg. The other Protoss may see her deceiving and treacherous in nature, and every bit as vicious as the Zerg, but Tassadar had clearly indicated that the Second Born were not always the abominations the Protoss had been led to believe. Although the Xel'Naga shrines he had found on Ulaan had neither specifically mentioned Kerrigan nor the alteration of the Zerg, the Overmind's apocalyptic vision of the future was something he found hard to dismiss, especially when it had been believed and accepted by Tassadar.

Nevertheless, Zeratul knew that his words alone could not possibly convince so many Protoss to accept Kerrigan as their savior, and that it would require cooperation from the Hierarchy for that to happen. It was exactly why he had proposed a meeting with Raynor and the Hierarchy, as many of them would respect the terran for his services to Aiur. However, just as they remained concerned about the possibility that Tassadar had been corrupted by the Overmind, there was equal concern regarding Raynor's personal feelings for Kerrigan.

Despite the fact that he had accepted that Raynor knew Kerrigan better than he did, the Nerazim still found it difficult to understand why such feelings never faded after all of her actions of deception and betrayal towards him. If Raynor was correct about Kerrigan being nothing like the Queen of Blades, then the logical explanation would have to be that even after all these years, he continued to believe the female terran still existed within the Zerg monster. This was certainly a possibility given her role as savior of all creation, but it was something that had to be accepted by the other Protoss as well. Looking around, Zeratul could see that Selendis, Vartanil, and Ataldis shared the same concern.

In the case with Ataldis, it was more so than the others. Although he had organized the defense of the Alys'aril Nexus on Ehlna, along with evacuating the Khaydarin Memory Crystals, the fact remained that he was a different Protoss warrior compared to Vartanil and Selendis. The former was once a Tal'darim, while the latter was among the most dedicated Khalai warriors the Protoss could offer. Nevertheless, neither one of them sought out and guarded knowledge as he did since this was the specific duty of the Alysaar. Of course the knowledge and memories were insignificant in comparison to the ancient knowledge held by the Protoss Preservers, and it was this reason that the young Dark Templar was grateful for Zamara's presence oh Ehlna, providing the Alysaar with millennia old ancient knowledge that far surpassed his own.

This only reinforced his growing anxiety, as the Zerg attack on Ehlna had clearly demonstrated to him of what the abominations were capable of. Given the savagery and lust for destruction personality from the Queen of Blades, Ataldis could hardly believe what difference she could possibly have now.

But even if he could be convinced of her change in personality and morals, the Alysaar knew he was not among a member of the governing body of the Protoss Hierarchy, and therefore could only make recommendations to them, nothing more. During his time spent fighting alongside Khalai and Nerazim Protoss alike and defending the Xel'Naga Caverns entrance from the Zerg, both Urun and Zekrath had informed him that the Hierarchy had its fractious moments.

Thus only time would tell if the Hierarchy would react in the same way once the former Queen of Blades arrives in Scion. Ataldis hoped that if there would be quarrels, it would be relatively brief.

* * *

**Antioch, Aiur**

Matt Horner walked along the rough terrain that once used to be reinforced roads and streets of the Protoss capital city of Antioch. Despite the fact that an alliance had been formed with the Protoss to expel the remaining Zerg off Aiur, the fact remained that not everyone was comfortable with it. Many of Warfield's troops were uneasy about being around them, as Dominion propaganda had continuously portrayed themselves as the only effective defense against the Zerg swarm, while demonizing the Protoss as mass murderers for eradicating all life on planetary surfaces and would inevitably become as dangerous as the Zerg.

Now, after fighting alongside Raynor's Raiders, which had been portrayed as one of the greatest threats to the Dominion, word was rapidly spreading if Dominion propaganda had been accurate about the Protoss, as it clearly had been wrong about Jim Raynor. If this was indeed the case, then there would certainly be the risk of some very unpleasant results. Most Dominion soldiers knew that no official state of war exists between them and the Protoss, but they were also aware that Mengsk wanted Protoss technology to be incorporated into the Dominion military. If the Protoss refused to share, the Dominion would simply take it from them, and this had been the case even before the Zerg invasion. Due to Dominion propaganda of portraying the Protoss as being utterly ineffective at dealing with the Zerg, most Dominion military personnel had convinced themselves that if conflicts occur with Protoss forces, the Dominion would be able to easily steamroll over them.

Now, after seeing the vast numbers of Protoss warriors and war machines on Aiur, most of Warfield's troops quickly saw that such earlier impressions were little more than wishful thinking. Unlike the Zerg, not every Protoss was a warrior in his or her own right, but the nevertheless accounted for the greater majority of their entire race. This was in complete contrast to the Dominion, where despite the constant boasts to the public of the unparalleled might of the Dominion military, the fact remained that the Dominion's military arm represented only a small fraction of the total Dominion population. For that reason, most of the troops were now convinced that if total conflict _did_ occur with the Protoss, it's likely the Dominion could meet a similar fate as it had against the Zerg swarm during the Brood War.

For General Warfield, managing the tension of his own troops in the presence of so many Protoss on Aiur was just one of his concerns. After the successful raid on New Folsom, the liberated prisoners all had their bones to pick with the Dominion. Although Raynor had assured them that the Dominion troops in the Raiders had turned against Mengsk, there were many who were skeptical. Even the Dominion soldiers than had been imprisoned for questioning Mengsk's authority were not fully convinced, as they believed the Dominion military was too corrupt and obsequious to their emperor, and too scared of his wrath to do anything more than blindly obey his orders. Clearly, the general was going to have his work cut out for him to prove that the troops under his command were no longer the soldiers that once served Mengsk.

The mercenaries on the other hand proved to be more promising to convince. Contrary to what most people thought, they were not mindless automations. They did not have the same morals as regular soldiers, but they were soldiers nonetheless and therefore still had their own values. In fact, many of the mercenaries once belonged to the former Confederacy, the Umojan Protectorate, and the Kel-Morian Combine. Their reasons for leaving their original factions were still a mystery, and most simply assumed it was for the money that turned them loose. This certainly seemed to have been vindicated during the Zerg invasion, where even the Dominion hired various types of mercenaries to help defend their worlds and installations.

However, the reality was completely different. The simple fact was that nobody seemed to have considered what the mercenaries had in mind once the fighting was over, and that was something Warfield had learned after his troops has associated with the mercenaries under the Raiders during the Char invasion.

Apparently for many of them, while money was certainly a primary factor in their motivation, it wasn't the only factor. Unlike the former Confederacy and the Dominion, the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate used different types of soldiers to defend their territories, and upon examining their profiles, Warfield saw that almost none of the Kel-Morian and Umojan mercenaries had served prison time in their own factions. While some parts of their records indicated criminal activity, these men were nothing like the murdering psychopaths the Dominion used, and Raynor had told him that most of the mercenaries took only minor effort on his part to get them to join his Raiders, some of them were even willing to accept delayed payment in their paychecks.

For Warfield, this initially made no sense, but Raynor pointed out that both the Confederacy and the Dominion lacked something the Kel-Morians and Umojans gave to their soldiers: recognition. He was among the few Dominion officers who saw the value of soldiers on the battlefield, but most Dominion generals felt that as they were once criminals taken from prisons, they were unworthy to be treated as men and better as cannon fodder, expendable assets to be sacrificed in the scope of the bigger picture.

Although the Kel-Morian and Umojan prisoners taken from New Folsom all stated that their factions treated their military personnel better compared to the Dominion, the fact remained that everyone had their breaking points, and Kel-Morian and Umojan military personnel were no exception. After serving with them for so long and not being recognized as much as they should have for their actions, it was exactly the reason why they were so enthusiastic about allying themselves with Raynor's Raiders. In the case with allying with the Protoss, this was an added bonus for the Umojans. Unlike the Dominion, the Umojan Protectorate had made great efforts to avoid conflict with the Protoss as it was believed that they could teach the faction the greater understanding of life, and supply knowledge in ways they could never imagine.

Thus Warfield concluded that despite Raynor's hesitation on striking an alliance with the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate, it was certainly on the cards. Both factions despised the Dominion, and although it was obvious that each would have ulterior motives, the fact remained that if someone could promise the Dominion's fall, they would put it under serious consideration.

With regards to the mercenaries and regular soldiers that belonged to the former Confederacy however, it was a somewhat different story. Although the vast majority of the Confederate military had been incorporated into the Dominion, some had actually joined forces with Raynor's Raiders after Tarsonis fell to the Zerg. It wasn't in the name of restoring freedom to the Koprulu sector or anything like that, but rather for the sake that they would be able to take their revenge on Mengsk someday. Others had set up resistance forces, and even now, the Dominion military is still hunting them, hoping to bring them to justice. Indeed, many of the Confederate soldiers that had been liberated on New Folsom belonged to the resistance, while the Confederate mercenaries were considered to be threats to all factions, as they were not loyal to any faction of their own.

Warfield knew that although these mercenaries had willingly joined forces with the Raiders, they would have to be watched over more carefully compared to their Kel-Morian and Umojan counterparts. The Umojan Protectorate had been formed in the aftermath of the Guild Wars and the defeat of the Kel-Morian Combine in the hopes that the Umojan colonies would be free from Confederate tyranny. The Kel-Morians on the other hand, had been involved in conflicts with both the Dominion and the Protoss in regards to mining colonies. Although the Combine was not officially at war with the Dominion, it saw armed conflict with the faction as inevitable.

Nevertheless, both the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate had one thing in common: their hatred of the Confederacy. Both saw the Dominion as corrupt and would eventually become their enemy, and the Umojan breakaway from the Dominion in the aftermath of the Brood War seemed to be another step towards inevitable conflict. However, the fact remained that it was from the Confederacy to which their problems had originated from. The Umojan Protectorate was so desperate to bring the Confederacy down that it had supplied Mengsk, along with the Sons of Korhal, with just about every type of weapon and equipment they asked for. The Kel-Morian Combine did no such thing, but this was only due to their appalling losses sustained in the Guild Wars that had effectively rendered the Kel-Morian military a shadow of its former self.

Thus it seemed logical that the hatred for the Confederate personnel would still remain, despite the fact that the Confederacy had ceased to exist years ago. This was something of great concern to Warfield, as he didn't know how well the Raiders were going to be able to function with Dominion, Umojan, Kel-Morian, and ex-Confederate personnel all mixed together, and that's not even including the mercenaries.

For the time being however, of far greater and immediate concern to the general was Raynor, who has been escorted away by the Protoss to face their council. Despite his commanding nature, Warfield knew that the Raiders would need the rebel commander and his leadership, both in the short run and the long run. Raynor had told him of what he had done for the Protoss, even helping them kill the Zerg Overmind right here on Aiur. However, despite his further actions in assisting them against the Queen of Blades, it did not change the fact of what Kerrigan had done to them during her time as Zerg leader.

For that reason, Warfield was unsure how the Protoss would react to Raynor's testimony in defending Kerrigan. He could only hope it would be in a non-hostile manner. The last thing anyone needed now was fighting to occur between the terrans and Protoss, especially given the fact that the latter greatly outnumbered the former here on Aiur.

* * *

**Hierarchy Citadel, Scion Province, Aiur**

"You have gone completely mad, Hierarch," Nahaan said in a warning tone. "Forget that you had allowed the Queen of Blades to set foot on the sacred soil of Aiur. You would now have the wretched creature be brought here to our very presence?"

"That is not your decision," Artanis stated. "From what Zeratul had collected from the Overmind along with the Xel'Naga prophecy, she is the key to saving the entire Protoss race. Would you allow your hatred to blind you from your reason?"

"Savior? The only thing she has ever done was to kill off both Protoss and terrans alike! Explain how in that aspect she is supposed to be a savior of our people!"

"That is something even I do not understand," the Hierarch admitted. "If James Raynor is correct about her—"

"You seem to forget the Queen of Blades had manipulated him during the Brood War," the Ara Tribe leader interrupted. "What makes you think the same isn't true now?"

"James Raynor is correct that none of us know what Kerrigan is like before she was the Queen of Blades," Mohandar pointed out. "We have all seen the effects of the Zerg infestation towards the terrans and what it had done to them. Thus the possibility that Kerrigan was a completely different person prior to her infestation cannot be factored out."

"She is a veil creature that has no place in all of creation!" Nahaan countered. "The treacherous acts she had done to all of us are more than enough of a testament to prove that she can never be trusted! We should kill her on sight once she is here!"

"You forget your place, Nahaan," Artanis warned. "Remember, your tribe was the dominating tribe of the Judicator Assembly, and thus became the dominating force when the Conclave was formed after the Aeon of Strife. The Conclave has been the Khalai Protoss ruling body for about 3000 years, only dissolving itself a few years ago after the death of the Overmind and the reunification of the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss. Do not think for one moment that I would not suspect that its influences still linger about."

"The Conclave may have its flaws, Hierarch, but it has its superiority over the Hierarchy that governs the Protoss now. Unlike the ruling body here, the Conclave was capable of making swifter decisions, and at a much faster rate. In comparison, the Hierarchy is slow, fractious, and ineffective."

Before Artanis had a chance to counter this, another voice spoke up.

"The Conclave was also blind, Nahaan. Even as the Zerg swarm had spread its chaos and destruction all over Aiur, they refused to change their traditions, and punished anyone who opposed their view."

"That was the will and nature of the ruling body, Urun," Nahaan replied. "It was the duty of the Conclave to see that the Protoss would not fracture."

"We had also trusted the Conclave to protect the Khalai Protoss on Aiur!" Urun countered. "Had Tassadar not defied its will and brought Zeratul and his Dark Templar brethren to Aiur, we would have all perished where we stood, let alone be here to reclaim our homeworld today! It pained me greatly to have departed our homeworld, but I realize now that it was the only action that could have given us the chance to survive!"

"Urun is correct," Zekrath said. "Do not forget, Nahaan, your tribe was not the only one that belonged to the Judicator Caste. My Shelak Tribe was part of it as well, though not as dominant as your Ara Tribe was. It was only due to the dominance of your tribe that had given the Conclave its dominating power in the Judicator Caste, otherwise that power would have been uniformly shared between our two tribes."

"How dare you question the wisdom of the Judicator Caste, Zekrath!" Nahaan said angrily. "Do not forget, they had shown you leniency about further studies of the Xel'Naga after the Aeon of Strife! Khas had united us all under the Khala, where we had no need of the Xel'Naga anymore! The Shelak Tribe was allowed to continue its study on them so that the link with our fathers would not be completely severed, but all of the other Protoss tribes had moved on!"

"Not all of us united in such a way," Mohandar warned. "We Nerazim had our own reasons for not embracing the Khala as you did."

"You were reckless! It was your lack of control and resistant to authority that had the Conclave perceive you as the threat to the Protoss! After the chaos your kind had unleashed on Aiur due to your inability to control your psionic powers as you had not embraced the Khala, the Conclave showed you mercy by merely banishing you from Aiur!"

"And you forget it was only with the energies of the Void we wielded that defeated the Overmind in the first place!" the Dark Templar shouted. "Unlike you, the Dark Templars have always been free thinkers, motivated by our tribal bonds and motivation for one another. Never shall we erase our identities simply to increase the power of the Judicator Caste, and it was from this reason that we did not embrace the Khala."

"It is exactly why the majority of us are relieved that the Conclave is no more," Artanis said. "Had we made our stand on Aiur, no Khalai Protoss would be alive today in this meeting."

"And you are ensuring our destruction by bringing the Queen of Blades here!" Nahaan seethed. "She is a threat to both Khalai and Nerazim Protoss alike! Forget what she had done to the Khalai Protoss, what of what she had done to Raszagal in her mad quest for power? You would allow the Xel'Naga prophecy to blind you to that?"

"Of course not," the Hierarch replied. "Kerrigan has much to answer for during the time she had spent with the Zerg. But just as we know more about Tassadar than James Raynor, the same is true in that he knows more about Kerrigan than us. He is the only one who knows what she was like before becoming the Queen of Blades."

"If the prophecy is true and she really is meant to save us all, then we must know everything we can about her," Zekrath added. "Our encounter with the terran Rosemary Dahl had clearly proved there were more trustworthy terran females out there. If James Raynor is correct and Kerrigan is truly a different person now, this could be the starting point where we reconsider our views on terran females as a whole."

Nahaan was just about the counter that statement when the chamber doors suddenly opened and a High Templar came in. "En Taro Tassadar, Artanis. I apologize for interrupting the meeting of the Protoss Hierarchy, but James Raynor has arrived in Scion province. He has brought with him the former Queen of Blades, as well as another female terran warrior by the name of Nova Terra."

"What is the purpose of another female terran?" Artanis asked.

"He knows that the Protoss race has had only minor encounters with female terrans, and it is his hope to prove to the Hierarchy that not all of them are as murderous and treacherous as the Queen of Blades. According to him, the terran Nova Terra is very similar to Kerrigan, with the exception of the Zerg infestation."

"Allow them entrance into the citadel," Artanis said, before turning to the rest of the Hierarchy. "I know this will be a tense moment, but we must not lose focus of the greater picture. This is about the survival of the Protoss race, not retribution for what the former Queen of Blades has done to us. Remember, James Raynor is our ally, and he strongly believes in Kerrigan."

He turned to Mohandar. "I know the pains she has caused the Nerazim due to what had happened to Raszagal, but I had seen her face when I spoke to James Raynor. Unlike when she came to Shakuras claiming reform, this time there seemed to be genuine regret. Zeratul once said that the Conclave had allowed their pride to blind them from their reason, and this was why Aiur became overrun and decimated by the Zerg swarm."

The Dark Templar nodded gently, understanding what the Hierarch was getting at. "If the former Queen of Blades has truly changed, then I will control my rage and anger towards her." But even as he spoke those words, he knew this was going to be exceedingly difficult to do.

Urun, however, was still skeptical. "And what of the other female terran? If James Raynor is correct and she is exactly like the way Kerrigan was, how can we be sure there will not be a second problem to deal with?"

Zekrath spoke up. "You were there when we had met Rosemary Dahl, Urun. She had been under the influence of the Sundrop substance that had corrupted the Tal'darim. Even if you did not believe her story, you had clearly seen she was nothing like Kerrigan. The truth of the matter is that we have not encountered enough female terrans to know their nature, and this is why I support the Hierarch's decision to allow the terran Nova Terra to be present here as well."

"James Raynor had told me similarly," Artanis agreed, before turning to Urun. "All we have to work with right now are suspicions due our experiences with the former Queen of Blades. Even if you are correct, we must confirm this."

* * *

**Outskirts of Scion Province, Aiur**

A Zealot pointed in the direction of the citadel. Despite the fact that it was not among the destroyed buildings on Aiur, the fact remained that 4 years of Zerg infestation had taken its toll. The majestic golden shine, typical for most Protoss buildings, had faded away. Although the structure of the building remained in reasonable shape, Jim could only imagine what kinds of scars it carried after it had been ravaged by way for so long.

"The Protoss Hierarchy will see you now, James Raynor," the Zealot announced, as the Stalkers, High Templars, and other Zealots escorting him, Sarah, and Nova dispersed.

"Right," Jim said calmly. "Let's just get this over with. We've still got Zerg to kill here."

"Be very careful, terran. All of the Hierarchy are aware of the Xel'Naga prophecy and the role that the former Queen of Blades will play in it, but the prophecy in itself is still uncertain and there are those that hope to disprove it so that they will be given the opportunity for justice. Do not be afraid, though. There are already those that are sympathetic towards your feelings for her."

"And I'm sure there's plenty who aren't," Jim countered.

Sarah squeezed his hand, turning Jim around to face her. "Jim, don't push it. The fact that I'm still alive right now is plenty right there. You try pushing them to see me differently and you're going to get yourself killed."

The commander sighed, gently stroking her arm. "I know, Sarah. But I have to find a way to convince them that with the Zerg influence gone, you're not the same person anymore."

"If you can't, it's all right. I don't deserve it after everything I did to them."

"Jim, I _really_ hope you know what you're doing," Nova said quietly. "Your deal with Valerian may have worked, but most of the Raiders are still uneasy with former Dominion troops as part of our revolution. The mercenaries you've got has done nothing to ease that tension, and the ex-Confederate, Kel-Morian, and Umojan soldiers we liberated from New Folsom are just straining things more and more. The Protoss on the other hand, well there's plenty of them right here on Aiur fighting to take their homeworld back, and you know how they feel about Sarah. I just hope you know how big a powder keg you're sitting on."

As much as he hated to admit it, Jim knew Nova was right on that matter. Despite the liberation on New Folsom and all the prisoners added to his Raiders, the fact remained that they were far outnumbered by the Protoss on this world. On Haven, he had said that it was stupid to be killing Protoss when the Raiders should be allying with them against Kerrigan. The same is true now, where the last thing he wanted was to fight entire legions of Protoss simply because they want their chance at retribution.

"Just be careful of what you say to them, Nova," he said finally, as the three of them stepped through the citadel entrance gate and into a long and somewhat confining corridor, leading to the council chambers. "The Protoss have a bitter attitude towards human females, and seeing Kerrigan again is going to make their blood boil without any of us doing anything at all."

Sarah followed them without a word, lost in her own thoughts, deeply pondering just what she could possibly say to the Protoss that would result in a non-hostile reaction. She didn't know what Jim had in mind in defending her, and decided not to read his mind to find out. But she seriously doubted that this meeting would go well, no matter what the circumstances.

* * *

**Author's Note: I know I left this on another cliffhanger, but it was a matter of building up suspense. Call it the calm before the storm if you like.**

**Due to so many other things I need to tend to right now, I cannot say for certain when the next chapter will come.**

**However, there is one thing I will say with absolute certainty: this will be the last cliffhanger chapter before the confrontation.**

**In the next chapter, ****it will be what you have all been waiting for, as Kerrigan will face the judgment of the Protoss council for everything that had transpired during her time with the Zerg.**

**I will make every attempt to get that chapter up as soon as possible, so the faster you guys review, the harder I'll try to do so.  
**


	40. Chapter 40

**Author's Note: With the new year, I thought it'd be best to kick it off by giving you guys the chapter you've all been waiting for. Without doubt this has been the most difficult chapter for me to write so far****, as I had to make every attempt to keep things from getting completely out of control, it certainly wasn't easy.**

**Anyways, for writing this chapter, I had to read parts of "The Dark Templar Saga Part 3: Twilight"**** very carefully in order to make the chapter work. For those of you who had read the book, you'll notice a _lot_ of references to it right here in this chapter.**

**Well that's enough out of me. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter 40

**Hierarchy Citadel, Scion Province, Aiur**

Upon entering the main chamber of the citadel, Jim could see that the building's interior had also suffered from the Zerg infestation. Standard Protoss architecture in almost all buildings comprise of golden towers and arches, along with resting Khaydarin Crystals. Here, although the arches and towers remain, their golden radiance had disappeared. They look dilapidated, and although there was no Zerg creep present, the commander could clearly see the scars of infestation they had left behind. The Khaydarin Crystals in the chamber were a clear sign that the citadel still had power, but they no longer rejuvenated anyone passing by with a blue glow.

Sarah kept her eyes on the ground, knowing that the scars of the very citadel they were in had been had been caused by her hand when she was the Queen of Blades. Nova put a comforting hand on her shoulder, softly encouraging her, but it didn't seem to have any success.

Jim walked forward, towards the circular room. Above it was a dome, forged from faceted Khaydarin Crystals, but while they were meant to let in as much light as possible, the ones here were barely doing that, another sign of the Zerg infestation.

Alcoves ran along the entirety of the circular hall, although more than half of them had sustained severe damage and were somewhat caved in. The ones that remained looked like they had undergone some degree of restoration, and a Protoss was sitting in a chair in each of the remaining ones. Jim was quickly able to spot out Artanis in one, although he was unable to determine the identities of the other five. Beside Artanis stood Selendis, and the commander hoped she would be able to forgive him for what he had done on Haven, having rescued Dr. Hanson and her colonists.

Around the giant circular room, Protoss Zealots stood by, and Jim understood such a precaution. None of the Protoss were convinced yet that Sarah was a different person now, and the warriors were in position in the event the former Queen of Blades reared her head.

Naturally, Jim hoped to avoid fighting at all while in this chamber, but such factors were not completely within his control.

"En Taro Tassadar, James Raynor," Artanis greeted. "The Protoss Hierarchy is honored by your presence among us once more. Years ago, we stood together against the Zerg swarm, and now we find ourselves in a similar situation, facing an even greater foe."

"En Taro Tassadar, Artanis," Jim greeted back. "I thought you said most of you guys are still skeptical on this Xel'Naga prophecy. Zeratul showed me what he had uncovered on Ulaan, and even he said the prophecy was uncertain in nature."

"It still is, my friend," Zeratul replied, stepping out from the shadows. "This meeting is not to discuss about the prophecy in itself as we have yet to fully comprehend it. However a consensus has been reached that it cannot be ruled out, especially after they had seen the apocalyptic vision of the future from the Zerg Overmind."

"This meeting is about Kerrigan, then." It was more of a statement than a question.

"You are correct, young Raynor," one of the Dark Templars sitting from above stated. Although he looked in a calm state, Jim knew he didn't need to be a telepath to see the Nerazim was struggling to contain his rage against Sarah.

Zeratul's voice suddenly spoke into his mind. _Do not be too surprised, my friend. Mohandar is among the strongest warriors of all Dark Templar, but like myself, he too is still struggling to prevent his emotion from blinding him from his reason in the presence of the former Queen of Blades, especially after what had happened to Raszagal._

Jim cringed at the thought. He knew this would be among the topics brought up, and no matter how much he believed he could handle it, the doubts remained in his mind. Sarah's pessimism on that topic did nothing to help him in the matter.

"We are pleased that your actions on Char have given us the opportunity to retake our homeworld, James Raynor," another Protoss spoke out. "It had been something we had waited what seemed like an eternity for."

_Urun had wanted to retake Aiur ever since the Khalai Protoss had found refuge on Shakuras,_ Zeratul spoke out privately to him.

Jim gave a slight nod in acknowledgement, before speaking up himself, "It seems you boys have done quite a job here already. There're more Zerg corpses on Aiur than I could count by the time I arrived."

"You are correct," Urun replied. "However as the Zerg can replenish their forces so quickly, a victory here will mean little unless there is evidence to suggest that their leadership has truly been crippled. For if not, I fear we could just as easily face yet another Zerg invasion of Aiur."

"You bring with you the greatest threat the Protoss has ever known," another Protoss said, this time in a very accusing tone. "You were foolish in your actions to spare the Queen of Blades. Do you think she would hesitate for even a moment had the situation been reversed?"

At that point, Nova's eyes darkened in anger. "You don't know a damn thing about her before she was taken by the Zerg—"

Before she could get another word out, the Protoss suddenly unleashed a blast of inertia from his hand, blasting her and sending the blond ghost staggering backwards. "You will speak when spoken to, foolish terran!"

"Nahaan, enough!" Artanis shouted, before turning to Raynor and speaking in a much calmer tone. "Forgive him, friend Raynor. As the leader of the Ara Tribe, he had strong ties to the Conclave, the Protoss ruling body that came before the Hierarchy. This was the very group of judicators you had encountered on Aiur during the Zerg invasion."

"I remember," Jim said, keeping his temper in check. "They were the ones who opposed Tassadar for bringing the Dark Templar on Aiur, saying that because they didn't embrace the Khala as you did, they weren't worthy to be considered Protoss at all."

"If it weren't for the energies of the Dark Templar, the Overmind would never have been slain," Mohandar said proudly.

"Even to this day, Nahaan finds it difficult to believe the Conclave had been mistaken," Artanis explained. "He sees the Hierarchy as too slow and inefficient to be capable of action."

"As the Conclave we were capable of making swift decisions!" Nahaan shouted. "Don't forget, Kerrigan murdered Aldaris, our judicator! He had warned you not to trust her when she arrived on Shakuras and you foolishly refused to listen! He had determined that the Queen of Blades has manipulated Raszagal and you still chose to ignore the threat! When are you ever going to learn that female terrans are all untrustworthy?"

Jim shot Artanis a stern look. "Seriously, Artanis, why do you keep such a hot head like that on the Hierarchy?"

"He is difficult to accept," the Hierarch admitted. "But all voices must be heard, and he was the best candidate when selected to represent the Ara Tribe."

"Understand, young Raynor," Nahaan continued. "Your services may have aided us in the destruction of the Overmind, but the fact remains that our homeworld is still in ruins due to the trusting of terrans, and Shakuras came close to sharing a similar fate. Many Protoss believe you are certainly trustworthy, but there are just as many who are fully aware of your personal feelings for Kerrigan. It was exactly why during the Brood War she did not have to warp your mind at all for you to fall under her influence."

As much as Jim hated to admit it, the Ara leader had a point. After the Overmind's death on Aiur, despite the fact of the infestation, he wanted to believe so badly that Sarah had finally changed that it had blinded him to the greater picture. Yet nevertheless, if the Xel'Naga prophecy was true, then perhaps in the long run, such an ascension could have been beneficial.

Before he could speak, however, another Protoss spoke out. "Such a situation is similar to when you had been told about the prophecy, Nahaan. Tassadar is an honored hero of the Protoss, yet even now, you continue to dismiss the possibility that he could be telling the truth about the Overmind."

_As the leader the Shelak Tribe, Zekrath constantly tries to seek more knowledge,_ Zeratul spoke into his mind again. _The Xel'Naga prophecy is no exception to this, regardless of its true interpretation._

Jim gave a nod of acknowledgement, before turning to the Shelak leader. "I have to agree with the guy there. This is the fate of not only the Protoss race, but of the entire universe we're talking here. Are you really willing to gamble it all simply due to your pride?"

Nahaan looked furious at such an outburst from the male terran, and was about to reply when a voice cut him off. "James Raynor is correct on this. Despite our loathing of the Zerg, we have little comprehension of their origins. History is of vital importance to the Protoss, and there are times where this includes the history of our enemies. Only by understanding the Zerg is it possible to learn how to defeat them."

_Tabrenus is the leader of the Furinax Tribe, my friend. It is my hope that of the Protoss Hierarchy members who are seeing you for the first time, he will be the most sympathetic in regards to Kerrigan. You will see very shortly._

Jim took a deep breath, before speaking himself. "I have heard the opinions of the Hierarchy, and I can see you have conflicting viewpoints. But this isn't about the prophecy we're talking about here. None of us are going to know anything more about that until we pull the knowledge out of the Overmind's head. Zeratul called this meeting to discuss the matter about Kerrigan, and I'm sure by now all of you are aware that I'm the only one here who knows what she's like before she became the Queen of Blades."

"It is the reason for the large numbers of Protoss warriors in this room, James Raynor," Selendis said, speaking up for the first time. "Your actions on Haven may have been vindicated with the terran Hanson in curing her people of the Zerg infestation virus, but Kerrigan is a completely different story altogether."

"Would you have given them the chance had I not been able to defeat your Purifier?" Jim asked.

"Not then," the female executor stated. "But after my Observers had recorded that the infestation had been contained, I saw that terran technology must not be underestimated."

Jim smiled slightly at that when Selendis continued, "Nevertheless, the Protoss on Haven have confirmed that the terran Hanson was unable to extract the remaining Zerg blood still present in the former Queen of Blades. The might of the Xel'Naga may have removed much of it, but as long as there is still the tainted blood within her, the possibility that she will remain a threat to all creation cannot be ruled out. Given her strong psionic abilities, you will understand why such precautions are necessary."

Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, they suddenly felt a strange feeling pass by them. A psionic feeling indeed, but it wasn't one of attack or anything like that. Rather, it felt like a mental barrier had been removed or something.

Immediately, Jim turned around to Sarah. "Sarah, what did you just do?"

Kerrigan raised her head up, speaking for the first time in a soft voice, "I released my mental fortifications. Every telepath in the room is now free to probe my mind as much as they like, for as long as they like. I won't resist that."

Before Jim could object, Sarah shook her head sadly. "You know this has to be done, Jim. After what I did to Raszagal, turning her into my slave and using her to betray the Dark Templar people, I have no right for them not to do the same to me. If they're going to go into my head and kill me that way, then so be it."

Jim looked up, alarmed, before turning to Artanis. "You had better be right that none of your council members will let their emotions blind them, Artanis," he said in a warning tone. "I made it clear to you on Haven, I'm not going to stand by and let you kill Sarah."

"And that is why none of us will read into her mind," the Hierarch replied. "As Zeratul was the one who had discovered the Xel'Naga prophecy on Ulaan, and that Raszagal's death had affected him more deeply than anyone else, I propose for him to do so."

None of the other Protoss in the room seemed to object to this, and Jim sighed. "I know it's painful for you to see Raszagal's death again, Zeratul. But you also want to know what Sarah is like now, so the real question is if you're willing to endure seeing it again."

"I will endure what is necessary," the Dark Templar said calmly. "I had once told Aldaris that the Conclave had allowed their pride to blind them from their reason, and that to live to avenge them, we must learn from our mistakes. I shall do the same here, and set aside what was done in the past."

Without another word Zeratul raised his hand, as the Khaydarin Crystal Amulet on his neck began to glow brightly.

Sarah made no attempt to resist. Despite her fear of what Zeratul may do to her, she stood her ground and allowed the process to continue.

"Jim, I don't think this is a good idea," Nova warned. "I'm not sure _anyone_ is strong enough not to let their emotions get in the way of this. I was in the room with you as well when you spoke to the Protoss Hierarch, remember? Sarah said it herself that no Protoss alive today wouldn't demand her death after all that's happened."

"I've known Zeratul longer than you, Nova," Jim assured. "He discovered the prophecy, so he's not going to kill the one person who holds the key to saving the universe."

Zeratul paid no attention to this. Instead, he focused his psionic energies and scanned through Kerrigan's mind. The images he was seeing verified what Raynor had told him about her. She was indeed very powerful, but she also possessed a willpower that the Nerazim could not comprehend in terrans. He still remembered back on Char when he killed the Zerg Cerebrate Zasz, and how the Zerg essence tried to enter his mind. Although it was only for a moment, it had left him deeply shaken. On the other hand, Kerrigan had the Zerg essence infesting her mind for the last 4 years, yet she was able to retain her free will and sanity.

He felt her guilt and anguish at everything she had done as the Queen of Blades. He felt her resentment towards the Xel'Naga prophecy. Even now, she still wished someone could prove the prophecy false, so the Protoss would kill her and get it over with. Zeratul saw that she never wanted the role of savior at all. In fact, she never even wanted her psionic abilities to begin with, never wanted to be the special person.

But Zeratul also saw Kerrigan prior to her infestation, when she had first met Jim Raynor. Clearly her feelings for him grew the longer they had known each other, and the Dark Templar couldn't help but wonder if her feelings for him were every bit as strong as his for her.

He then witnessed her assimilation into the Zerg swarm, where she was imprisoned in the chrysalis. Zeratul saw her psychically screaming for Raynor as she was being infested, the very sight of it shook him to the core. And then he saw her back on Char, finally de-infested and free from the Zerg after so long. He saw Raynor look down at her, amazed to see her human again, and the joy in his eyes. He saw the joy in Kerrigan's eyes, the relief she felt of finally being rescued by the only person she knew who could have saved her.

Zeratul had seen enough. His psionic energies waned and he left Kerrigan's mind, and turned his attention to the Protoss Hierarchy.

"James Raynor was telling the truth when he said that Kerrigan is different now. I have gazed into her mind, and I can tell you that she regretted everything she did to us when she was the Queen of Blades. She carries a great burden of guilt, and feels she deserves to suffer for what she had done."

"Of course she deserves to suffer!" Nahaan shouted. "The only reason she is even alive right now is because of the prophecy!"

"I had seen her feelings on that as well," Zeratul replied. "Even at this very moment, she wishes that the prophecy would be false. She does not see herself as a savior to anyone, let alone everyone. She longs for her release, to be sent to the afterlife."

"That is not an option if the prophecy is true though," Artanis pointed out. "If Kerrigan dies, all of creation will die with her."

"Then prove the prophecy wrong," Sarah said softly. "I…I don't deserve to live after what I did to your kind."

Nova put a hand on her shoulder, before tilting her head up and speaking out. "According to what I've heard from Jim, you Protoss are supposed to be mostly rational. If that's true, then you have no right to kill Sarah."

"You dare tell us what is our right and what isn't?" Urun fumed. "You are in no position say such things!"

"And you are in no position to judge Sarah because you don't know what she was like before her infestation!" Nova countered.

"Neither are you, young terran!" Nahaan shouted. "Do not forget, we Protoss are the masters of telepathy! We know you have no knowledge of the Queen of Blades in such a matter either!"

Nova clenched her fist tightly, furious that her mind had been read without her consent. "Stop calling her that! Her time with the Zerg wasn't by her own free will! She didn't choose to become infested in the first place! She's traumatized enough over these things as it is and you're just making it worse! Sarah was once like myself, assigned to protect lives!"

"Protect lives? You once served a master that committed similar atrocities against the Protoss!" the Ara leader accused. "The Dominion as you call it had taken innocent Protoss and twisted and manipulated them into weapons that would obey their will! The gestalts, as they like to be called, defile the sacredness of all Protoss!"

At this point Jim spoke up. "The three of us had encountered those perversions before coming to Aiur. Nova and Sarah had destroyed them all. Besides, you're only telling the rest of the Protoss part of the picture. If you can read her mind so easily, then you'd also know that Nova is no longer part of the Dominion she once served. She is part of my Raiders now, and all of us fight for freedom to the Koprulu sector."

"He is correct, Nahaan," Tabrenus said. "Do not forget, the Protoss taken for the gestalt project came from the Furinax Tribe, and my tribe has conducted unethical experiments of our own."

Jim looked confused. "What experiments? What are you talking about?"

The Furinax leader paused for a moment, before speaking, "Our tribe had forged an advanced experimental facility some time ago on a distant world. About two and a half years ago, we conducted an experiment on Zerg creep, the very organism that Zerg buildings and larvae feed upon. Although it had cost the lives of many Protoss warriors, we had learned that the creep could be infected with a virus, causing it to mutate and destroy itself. If the theory could be proven, then we would produce this virus on a mass scale to be scattered across the Zerg infested worlds and eliminate the Zerg species once and for all."

"What happened?"

"The results were…catastrophic," Tabrenus admitted. "Instead of mutating and killing itself, the mutated creep became even stronger, capable of infesting Protoss. Afterwards, the facility was abandoned, and the entire experiment put to rest."

Sarah suddenly spoke up. "I know the feeling of what that's like," she said softly. "I had been subjected to it even before I was taken by the Zerg." Off the Protoss's confused look, she continued, "I used to be a soldier in the Terran Confederacy, and they had experimented on me with Zerg substances. The creep was among them, and they had learned through me that it could be psionically controlled. They didn't care what happened to me, as long as it got them the results they wanted."

"Do you expect that to be a reason for us to show you sympathy for all that you had done to us?" Mohandar scoffed.

Jim's eyes narrowed in anger. "If you're truly as wise and rational as you say you are, you'll put your anger aside. Sarah didn't choose to warp your Matriarch Raszagal of her own free will. That was the Zerg working through her. She too had been enslaved by it, and you should know that by now."

"I do not know enough of female terrans to fully understand what they are like, young Raynor. Kerrigan may mean much to you, but she is still the sworn enemy of the Protoss to me."

At this point, a Protoss Dark Templar on the ground level where Zeratul stood stepped forward. "You must understand, James Raynor. The Zerg swarm under Kerrigan's command had attacked the Alys'aril Nexus on Ehlna. That was the most sacred place of the Dark Templar, the very first sanctuary we had built since our exile from Aiur. It arose from our experiences, to serve our needs, and the Zerg swarm threatened to tear the place apart unless we gave them what they wanted, and even then I believe they would have destroyed our sanctuary anyway. It was only with the help of Khalai and Nerazim Protoss alike, along with a female terran by the name of Rosemary Dahl, that we had prevented the Zerg from achieving this."

Sarah shuddered at the mention of Dahl's name. As the Queen of Blades, she had been responsible for infesting her lover Ethan Stewart, and turning him into her consort. When he had served his purpose, she had discarded him like a pawn, leaving him to the mercy of the Protoss without another thought.

She looked on at the Dark Templar, suddenly remembering him as she has seen the Protoss through the eyes of her Zerg minions.

Before she had a chance to speak however, Nova piped up. "You just said it yourself that a female terran helped you defend this temple of yours. Since you didn't say anything about betrayal, I think it's safe to assume she was loyal to the Protoss cause until the end." Off the Dark Templar's nod, she continued, "If that's true, then don't you think this is a sign that not all females are murderous and treacherous?"

"Rosemary Dahl's actions did indeed give us pause for thought," the Dark Templar agreed. "However, it is still uncertain if this is true for all female terrans, or if they are treacherous by nature and she was merely the exception."

"You have every right to kill me right now, Ataldis," Sarah said quietly. "And you were right about my intentions back then given my previous treachery. If you had handed Zamara over to me, I would have ordered the Zerg to turn your Alys'aril into nothing but infested ruins."

"Then we were right to have deceived you," Selendis said coldly, before turning to Raynor. "This is why the former Queen of Blades cannot be trusted. Your actions on Char have only changed her appearance. At this point, nothing more is certain."

Jim, however, turned his eyes to the Dark Templar. "Ataldis, because of what you said about this Rosemary Dahl, you just openly admitted that there's not enough information to know just what the nature of human females is really like. If that's true, will you not give Sarah a chance to prove herself?"

"Aiur is in ruins due to trusting terrans. Shakuras nearly shared a similar fate, and the same was true for our Alys'aril Nexus on Ehlna. Everything Kerrigan has said to us has turned out to be lies. Why should any of us believe her now? It has been confirmed that some of the tainted blood is still within her, so you do not even know if the Zerg influence is truly gone or not, assuming she is even the noble person you claim she is to begin with."

Jim was just about to respond when Ataldis continued, "While we acknowledge the fact that at times our pride blind us from our reason, the fact remains that we have seen cases in terrans where you let your emotions blind you to the greater picture. For that reason, your feelings for the former Queen of Blades could be used to manipulate you."

"Were you even listening to Zeratul? He had seen into Sarah's mind," Jim countered. "You're free to look yourself if you don't believe it, but Sarah has regretted _everything_ she's done to you. She told me she'll do everything she can to make it up, and even then she'd still accept whatever sentence you pass on her. If you're not going to trust my words, at least trust Zeratul's."

Ataldis paused for a moment, in thought. Zeratul was the most respected Protoss in the room, and the rightful leader of the Nerazim. The only reason why he's not was because he chose the path of exile after what had happened to Raszagal, yet it would appear that he seemed willing to forgive Kerrigan for her actions. To the Alysaar Templar, his immediate suspicion is that the former Queen of Blades is trying to manipulate Zeratul to her own benefit, but he then sensed that her mental fortifications were still down, and as he briefly touched her mind, Ataldis could see she made no attempt of anything he was suspecting.

The blond terran called Nova Terra must have picked up on his thoughts, because right at that moment, she spoke up again. "Sarah isn't hiding anything from you, you're free to look all you want if you think she's trying to manipulate you and all that. When you don't find anything, will you then finally accept that she's a different person now?"

"There are those who need not to touch her mind for that, young Terra," Tabrenus said. "One of my own had experienced similarly to that of the former Queen of Blades. Though not on the same scale, he would have the best understanding of what it feels like to be controlled and manipulated."

At this point, a Protoss Zealot stepped forward. "James Raynor, your victory on Char came at the usage of an ancient Xel'Naga relic, one that had been protected by other Protoss."

Jim nodded. "They called themselves the Tal'darim, were a bunch of really fanatical people too. They tried everything in their power to keep me from the fragments."

"I would know," the Zealot said. "I used to be one of the Tal'darim myself." Seeing Raynor's eyes widen at the revelation, he continued, "I am Vartanil, a member of the Furinax Tribe. The Tal'darim you had encountered shared a similar trait I once had: corruption by Sundrop. It is a Protoss drug that is meant to cut us off from the link to the Khala, thus making us confused and violent."

"That would explain your hostility towards everyone," Jim said.

"Indeed," Vartanil then turned his head to Kerrigan. "Before the Tal'darim was formed, I had been part of the Protoss group known as the Shel'na Kryhas, among the Protoss survivors stranded on Aiur. The Dark Archon Ulrezaj had used this substance to corrupt and enslave us. I am sure you have heard of him."

"I remember," Sarah said softly. "I had used the Zerg to track him as well as Zamara."

"It is why I can understand your situation, Kerrigan," Vartanil replied. "If James Raynor is telling the truth about you, then the Zerg infestation you had undergone had enslaved you in a similar way the Sundrop had done to me. The terran Rosemary Dahl had been subjected to the drug as well, and she had been cured of it just as I have. It was why I had supported her proposal to the Hierarchy of rescuing her friend Jake Ramsey and to locate Zamara."

"Young Vartanil, if you think you are going to convince the Hierarchy to accept the former Queen of Blades, forget about it!" Nahaan seethed. "She will never be anything more than a creature of rage and treachery!"

At that, the Protoss warrior suddenly tilted his head up to face the Ara leader. "With all due respect, great Nahaan, I am the only Protoss in this chamber who understands how it feels to be manipulated, corrupted, and deceived. Do not forget, no Protoss had ever been infested by the Zerg and lived to tell the tale, so the closest similarity we have to compare would come from the corruption from the Sundrop substance."

He then turned back to Kerrigan. "I may have been in control of my own actions, but as I had been cut off from the Khala, such were actions that I did not understand. If your free will had been retained all those years, then your actions too had been manipulated. You were a tool of the Zerg just as I had been a tool of Ulrezaj."

"Come forward, Kerrigan," Artanis said, and Sarah did as he asked. "When I had spoken to you on Haven, you had promised me that you would never hurt another Protoss again." Off Sarah's nod, he continued, "I want you to take back that promise."

Sarah was aghast. "I have caused enough pain to the Protoss to last more lifetimes than I can count!" she exclaimed. "How can you even think of asking me that?"

"If you can truly see from the eyes of your Zerg minions when you were the Queen of Blades, then you had to have seen that Ulrezaj had been imprisoned in the Khaydarin Crystal that Zamara had transferred her essence into." Off Kerrigan's nod, Artanis continued, "We now have confirmation that he had escaped his confines. Zeratul had discovered Protoss-Zerg hybrids in the Xel'Naga Caverns beneath Aiur, all of them forged by Ulrezaj."

"Jim showed me the Overmind's apocalyptic vision of the future that showed hybrids too," Sarah said softly. "Are you saying Ulrezaj's master is this Fallen One?"

"It is very probable," Artanis replied. "If that is indeed the case, then Ulrezaj is a traitor to all creation, not just the Protoss. All of the Tal'darim he had corrupted would still be under his control, and that is why I ask you to take back your promise."

Before Sarah could respond, Jim cut her off. "Artanis, if Sarah does this, how would the other Protoss know she's actually fighting for your side? All they'd see is her still being every bit as ruthless as the Queen of Blades."

"I have already announced to my people that any Tal'darim Protoss will be considered an enemy due to their Sundrop corruption. We will of course still make every possible attempt to restore their connection to the Khala, but there will be times where open confrontation is inevitable."

Sarah sighed. Artanis had a point about Ulrezaj and for her to take her promise back. But deep down, she didn't know if she could take fighting the Protoss anymore, no matter whose side they're on. Far too much blood had already been shed when she was the Queen of Blades. It was because of her that Aiur was a wasteland, and their survivors as refugees on Shakuras. Too many Protoss lives had already been lost, she didn't know if she had it in her to take any more.

Nova patted her back gently. "Sarah, I know it's hard for you, but if what they're saying is true, this Ulrezaj could end up killing us all. No one here is saying you _must_ be the person to kill him, but it's certainly a possibility, and we're right now simply asking you to accept that."

Kerrigan looked up at the Protoss Hierarch. "Just Ulrezaj, and maybe his Tal'darim followers, no one more. I've caused too many Protoss deaths already, I won't hurt any more than I have to."

"You had best not," Urun said in a threatening tone. "We shall be watching you carefully, Kerrigan. After our experiences with Rosemary Dahl, the Protoss Hierarchy is convinced enough to give pause to our thoughts on female terrans, but the tainted Zerg blood in you means you are not like them in that sense. As Zeratul had discovered that you are indeed remorseful about what you had done to our people and wish to correct the mistakes, I will give you that much in the benefit of the doubt. The terran mind is unique in its unpredictability, and we have seen great variations from it. There are those that have shown kindness, and there are those corrupted by greed and lust for power."

He then turned his head to Nova. "Even if what James Raynor has said about you is true and you no longer serve the faction you once did, they have proven themselves to be hostile to our kind and we anticipate conflict with them in the future."

Ataldis turned his head to Raynor. "The Zerg were not the only invaders to our Alys'aril Nexus on Ehlna. There was a terran faction that had invaded as well. They had intended to claim it in the name of the Terran Dominion."

Jim gritted his teeth in anger. "I should have known. Mengsk's greed simply knows no bounds."

The Dark Templar paused for a moment, before speaking, "It is not the Mengsk you seem to despise, James Raynor. The head of the invading force was one Valerian Mengsk. It would appear that is the son of the enemy you have known to despise for so long."

"Arcturus Mengsk is your enemy," Jim said calmly. "He is the _real_ reason why so much suffering had been done to your people. He had deliberately abandoned Kerrigan to the Zerg on Tarsonis. Had he not done that, she never would have been the Queen of Blades to begin with."

"James Raynor is telling the truth," Zeratul said in the deep voice. "When I had touched Kerrigan's mind, I had also sensed her loathing of Mengsk. Despite the overwhelming guilt and anguish she felt for her actions against us, I felt her anger and rage at the terran Mengsk for betraying her and leaving her fate to the Zerg."

"Jim, don't do this," Sarah said softly. "Don't try to convince them it was never my fault. They'll never accept that. Remember what I told you: there were more than enough times I had reveled in the power the Zerg had given me."

Fortunately for her, the Protoss Hierarchy pressed forward with what Ataldis had addressed. "Did this Valerian Mengsk steal from the sacred site?" Zekrath asked.

"Not in the sense that you perceive," the Dark Templar answered, before turning to Raynor once more. "The Protoss had returned in force to Ehlna, but instead of fighting, he chose to take his Dominion fleet and withdraw from the area. A small number of our sacred Khaydarin Crystals were lost, but thanks to the efforts Rosemary Dahl and Vartanil, most had been saved from destruction."

"So Valerian is just like his father?" Jim asked.

Ataldis shook his head. "When he had arrived, I had briefly touched his mind. It had been his hope that the knowledge he learned from here would eventually be shared with all terrans, but I sense there was a fear in him of his father."

"Don't tell me, let me guess," Nova said. "Mengsk wanted all the knowledge and power for himself, and if he couldn't have it, then no one would?"

"You are correct, young Terra. From what I had seen in James Raynor's mind about Mengsk, it would appear he is the greedy terran who wants domination of all that live, while his son only wishes for the knowledge to benefit humanity as a whole."

Jim suddenly thought back to Char, when Valerian had asked him to hold on to the Xel'Naga artifact because he didn't want Mengsk to obtain it for himself. Clearly, he was nothing like his father.

"The day will eventually come when I ask for your help to take the fight to the Dominion," he said. "Once it's toppled, freedom will return to the Koprulu Sector."

"And we will be honored to fight at your side in such an endeavor," Artanis said. "For now, however, the last of the Zerg must be cleared from Aiur so that we may begin further investigation regarding the Xel'Naga prophecy."

"Then adjourn the meeting already, Artanis. You got what you needed out of Sarah," Jim looked up at the other members of the Hierarchy, and other than Nahaan, they all expressed agreement. "Zeratul has confirmed she's not like the Queen of Blades anymore, and will do everything she can to make up for her past actions."

Mohandar spoke up. "After what you had done to Raszagal, it would seem unthinkable that you would wish to make amends to our people, Kerrigan. However, Zeratul's opinion is to be respected, and I sense nothing in his mind that you have manipulated him to your own purposes. As with Urun, I too shall give you the benefit of the doubt for the time being. However, Nahaan is correct in that nothing can be ruled out about your intentions. Everything said and done here have only allowed us to reach the conclusion that you will be allowed to proceed with your actions on Aiur so we may yet determine where your loyalties truly lie. Your past deceptions have earned you no credit at all in terms of loyalty, and if we discover any sign of betrayal, you will die by our hand without the slightest hesitation, prophecy or not."

Sarah bowed her head. "I won't ask for your forgiveness, I know I don't deserve it. I know I don't deserve your trust, or even to live after all the pain I caused. But I promised I will find a way to make it all up to you, and I won't go back on that, no matter what you think of me now."

Jim breathed a sigh of relief when the Nerazim gave her a nod of approval, and backed down from any further accusations.

"Understand, young Kerrigan," Tabrenus explained. "One of my own may be sympathetic to you, but do not misjudge that leniency. The only history of Zerg infestation towards individual Protoss comes from the experimental facility, long since abandoned. As the experiment was carried out in secrecy, no one knows the specific details of the infestation and therefore no Protoss can understand what you had undergone during yours. Nevertheless, despite having their link to the Khala restored, all of the Tal'darim Protoss that we have helped are still being watched over as a precaution in the event their minds are still corrupted by Sundrop. You should expect similar suspicions for yourself."

"You guys can see it for yourselves once she helps you free Aiur," Jim said impatiently. "The longer we spend here, the more time the Zerg will have in strengthening themselves."

"You are correct my friend," Artanis said, before turning to the rest of the Hierarchy. "This meeting is hereby adjourned, my fellow brethren. We will now turn our task to clearing the Overmind's corpse, where the last concentration of Zerg is located."

As the Protoss Hierarchy left the meeting room, along with the other Protoss warriors, Jim turned around, ready to leave the citadel with Sarah and Nova. However, a voice called out to him, stopping him in his tracks.

"Once we have cleared the Zerg from the rotting mass of the Overmind, the rest of my brethren will likely turn their attention to securing the rest of the Aiur System," Zeratul explained. "They would want to ensure that Aiur shall never be threatened by the Zerg again."

"I know," Jim said. "But if what you found out about the Xel'Naga prophecy is true, the Zerg aren't our true enemy. They're just puppets, and someone else is pulling the strings."

"It is why I will return to the Overmind's husk once all of the Zerg defenders there had been slain. I would like you and Kerrigan to join me here when the time comes."

"I don't see the reason why. I already got the gist of the prophecy: Sarah is needed to stop Armageddon from this Fallen One, or he'll destroy the universe."

"The details of it remain uncertain, my friend. The full extent of the Overmind's intentions remain unclear to us. Some of its intentions may not be something I can comprehend."

"And you think Sarah and I can?"

"I have seen traits in the terran species that are difficult to decipher by even the most talented Protoss. It is entirely possible that some of the Overmind's intentions were not meant for a Protoss to understand."

Raynor nodded in understanding. "This is against my better judgment, but I'll agree to it. Once all the Zerg are dead, I'll meet up with you there."

Deep down, however, he prayed Zeratul knew what he was doing. Despite all these years with the Zerg, even Sarah didn't understand the full capabilities of the Overmind itself. The last thing he wanted was to go to the creature, only to have itself suddenly revive from its corpse and infest Sarah again. She had gone through enough hell with the Zerg already, and he refused to lose her a second time.


	41. Chapter 41

**Author's Note: Hey everyone, I would like to show my thanks to everyone who has reviewed my fic. Getting this many reviews is something I greatly appreciate. To show for it, I will give a quicker update this time.**

**It's not going to be as long as the last chapter, but the last one was never easy to write to begin with. Indeed, I _really_ had trouble last chapter in how to write it without having the council chamber get turned into a slaughterhouse.**

**To Blackhole1, who reviewed my last chapter and asked if it was my intent for the audience to forgive Kerrigan for her actions during her time with the Zerg, well answering that would require I spoil too much of the story.**

**Therefore, I ask that you be patient and wait it out: it will be revealed in time.**

**Anyways, here is the next chapter. I hope you guys enjoy reading it!**

* * *

Chapter 41

**Dominion Base, Bel'Shir**

General Madison watched as his lead SCVs submitted the report on the terrazine mining status so far. For the time being, there had been relief. The sound amplifiers had worked to their advantage, and for the past few hours they had been left in relative peace and quiet by the Tal'darim. There were the occasional Protoss that had wandered into the area, but none of them were scouting parties, which means so far they had no idea the Dominion forces were on Bel'Shir at all. Most of the time they had included lone Zealots or Stalkers, but nothing more than that. This had made a lot of his remaining marines quite trigger happy, but fortunately for the general, the few remaining Dominion officers were able to keep their men in check and have them hold their fire.

Should the Tal'darim notice anything out of the ordinary, it would spell almost certain catastrophe. With all of the Siege Tanks and Goliaths destroyed, his remaining armored ground strength consisted only of Hellions, Vultures, and Thors, all of them relatively few in number. The Thors in particular had to remain hidden deep in the jungle with the Command Center and other terran buildings, as it was only there that the jungle foliage was thick enough to successfully camouflage the massive walkers. To compensate for this weakness, many of the remaining Vikings were sent to the surface in their ground modes, their Gatling cannons still a force to be reckoned with against most Protoss warriors.

But it was the Tal'darim air power that caused the biggest headache for Madison. During the initial attempt to harvest the terrazine, the Protoss had brought in enough Scouts and Void Rays that it had forced him to devote the Vikings to a maximum effort to defend the base. As such, most of the remaining mechanical hybrids now suffered a severe shortage of lanzer torpedoes and therefore would be unable to provide the air support necessary should Protoss air power be brought in again. This would leave the task solely up to the marines, but despite all the combat experience, most Dominion marines were still unused to fighting enemy air units without support from Goliaths and Vikings. In fact in most combat situations when neither Dominion vehicle was present, the standard procedure was to wait until they do. This of course made it easy to convince them not to be trigger happy, but old habits are still hard to change.

With regards to the terrazine harvesting itself however, the situation was quite different. For starters, the usage of Ore Loaders was out of the question. Despite their ability to carry vast numbers of terrazine canisters, the massive terran vehicle had a serious weakness in this situation: its engine. It's not so much that the engine is inefficient or anything like that, but they were never meant to be used in mining operations when the factor of stealth was required. Indeed, little thought had been put into its engine design in terms of sound output, and despite the assistance of the sound amplifiers on the waterfalls, Madison knew the sounds of the Ore Loader engine could still be heard from longer distances away, and thus attract the attention of the Tal'darim Protoss nearby. This meant that the SCVs had to carry the canisters all the way back to the Command Center themselves. Normally this wouldn't be a problem for them, but with so little Dominion military strength left, the general knew this would be a cause for concern.

Of course, a far bigger problem was not in actually transporting the terrazine canisters, but rather harvesting the terrazine itself. Although the theory had been proven right in that the ghosts were able to open up the sealed terrazine altars, the results had fallen short of expectations. Madison had hoped that by channeling their psionic energies, his ghosts would be able to permanently open up the altar. In practice however, this was not the case. Apparently the Tal'darim had taken precautions in such a matter as well, and as the SCVs had discovered very quickly, once the seal barrier on the altars dropped, they only had a 15 minute window to collect the terrazine substance from it, before the jewel towers reactivated, and the altar sealed itself back up again.

Although his SCVs were relatively competent workers, the fact remained that the terrazine could not be packaged in the same way vespene could in the Refineries. As such, during the 15 minute window, this was only enough time to only obtain two or three filled canisters before the altar became unavailable to them again. This had led to more and more frequent requests for ghosts to return to the altars to open the seal once more. Unfortunately, this was reaching the point where it was gradually becoming not possible anymore.

As Protoss technology was superior that of the Dominion's, it meant that in order to break the seal and open the altar at all, it required a ghost to use up virtually all of his psionic energy to make that happen. On the other hand, 15 minutes was not enough time for a ghost's psionic energy levels to fully recharge, and thus completely new ghost was required for the task. However while the terrazine altars were all built the same way, the same could not be true in regards to psionic abilities of the ghosts. Indeed, as Madison was quickly discovering based on the reports of his ghosts, all of the ones with a psi index of 5 or 6 had their psionic energies fully drained in order to open the altar, leaving them so greatly weakened as to be incapable defending themselves in any way. They had estimated that in order to open the altar seal and still have enough psionic energy left to spare to defend himself against aggressors, it required a ghost with a psi index of 8 or higher, and Madison knew he had no ghosts like that at his disposal.

As such, it meant he was forced to accept that this harvesting operation was going to be due for a long haul. Each ghost's psionic energy recharge time is different, and with less than a dozen ghosts left, right now everyone was waiting for them to be on their feet again to help out with the altars. After only 25 canisters harvested, the terrazine mining operation has currently been stopped dead in its tracks, well below the 400 to 500 canisters Mengsk had ordered him to collect on Bel'Shir. The longer they stay here, the greater the chances of being discovered by the Tal'darim again, and the general did not want a second massacre on his hands.

Unfortunately, beggars couldn't be choosers, and he had no equipment at his disposal that could allow individual ghosts to recharge their psionic energies at a faster rate, so it had to be done naturally over time. This obviously had made many of the men under his command very nervous. Even the War Pig mercenaries showed signs of anxiety due to the current physical and material weakness, and Madison knew that it was vital for them to keep their cool. As the mercenaries he still had possessed superior firepower, the general knew if they lost their cool, the rest of his infantrymen would follow through very quickly.

* * *

**Overmind's Corpse, Aiur**

The maw of the Leviathans opened up, as hundreds of Zerg flyers poured out of it. Although some were Scourge, many more were cocoons, further reinforcing the Zerg numbers nestled around the Overmind's corpse. Not all of the aerial cocoons morphed into Mutalisks, Corruptors, and Brood Lords. Many of them morphed into Overlords instead so as to better assist the Zerg ground creatures.

Near the Overmind's husk, the hybrid psionically reached out to Overlords, instructing them for their transport duties. This took only minor effort, as the Overseers were instructing the same thing, without him issuing orders at all. Kerrigan had done quite well in evolving the Zerg to becoming more intelligent, and now this was going to backfire on her greatly.

Everywhere he could see, the sky was filled with Zerg flyers. Most of them were in a static position, but the Overlords moved back and forth for their transport role. With millions of Zerg ground minions that had broken out of Antioch, almost all of them headed for their dead master. The same was true for millions more that had been scattered across Aiur, as many had joined up with the Zerg here, realizing this was only location left where their numbers remained formidable. Unfortunately, by the time most of these Zerg had arrived, the Drones had already completed most of the work on the defensive lines leading to the Overmind, and the swarms of Zerglings, Roaches, Hydralisks, Ultralisks, Queens and Infestors moving into position were clearly hindering progress.

Although the transporting of these creatures proved to be a relatively slow progress, the Overlords were nevertheless very efficient workers to the task at hand. They had been diligently working without rest for days on end, reinforcing the weaker sections of the network of defenses surrounding the Overmind. Although not all of the Zerg were fully in position yet, the rate at which they had been mobilizing remained efficient, and the hybrid had no doubt that even with the combined might of terrans and Protoss, they would find extreme difficulty in dislodging the Zerg from this position.

He knew that the Zerg defenses all around the Overmind would have to be strong, as the hybrid was aware that among the main problems here was the presence of the Overmind itself. Unlike the other Zerg creatures, the massive husk couldn't move and was easily seen by all. To that end, there is a limiting factor in terms of flexibility he could exert over the Zerg, as it would take a lot of effort for them to leave their dead master behind. This also meant that the terrans and Protoss had a slight advantage in controlling the flow of the battle. Despite the Zerg defenses to be used to channel them into killing grounds, that element of surprise could only be used so many times over before it would be discovered where most of the killing zones were located.

Nevertheless, even if the terrans and Protoss break through, he could count on the Leviathans to lend their support to the Zerg on the ground. As they were flying Zerg colonies, each of the massive Zerg creatures stored countless Zerg creatures in its body, and was capable of generating larvae without the need for hatcheries. This in turn would compensate should enough terran and Protoss forces break through the defenses and the Zerg hatcheries, lairs, and hives come under fire. And unlike the Zerg buildings, the Leviathans had far more durable carapace, and other than the Protoss Mothership, most enemy fire could achieve little more than minor skin pricks. Their massive tentacles underneath them were equally powerful, capable of tearing apart even the largest warships with only minimal effort.

It was from these Leviathans that the hybrid based his strategy on dealing with the Protoss Motherships. Despite their small size when compared to the Leviathan, they possess immense energy in their planet cracking ability. However, this was only possible to targets beneath the Mothership, and that usually meant ground units. As the Leviathans were aerial creatures, such an attack was only possible if the Motherships fly above the massive Zerg creature, and that was highly unlikely to go unnoticed.

For that reason, the hybrid had ordered the Leviathans to remain in their defensive positions right above the Overmind's corpse, only to leave their places should the tide of battle turn against the Zerg, or if the Protoss call in their Motherships. Once the Motherships were destroyed, the rest of the terran and Protoss forces would be no match for the mighty Leviathans.

* * *

**Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char**

Ulrezaj watched from afar as beams of energy descended on the primary Zerg hive cluster from orbit. Although Duran had protested against the use of the purification technique, the Dark Voice thought differently. The entity had also been interested in Duran's new experiment, where some of the final components to make the experiment a success were located in the hive cluster that now lay before Ulrezaj.

As such, the Dark Archon had assured his master that the Tal'darim Carriers would be used on a very small scale, just enough to burn through enough of the Zerg defenses, while causing only minimal damage to the hive cluster itself. To that end, the Dark Voice had consented to his request, and by now, the first of the energy bombardments have begun.

It was considered a relief by the Tal'darim warriors as well. Despite the fact that combat was glorious to them, the fact remained that they did not possess an infinite amount of endurance. By the time the Carriers had reached high orbit and were in position to begin the energy bombardment, more than half the Zealots had been fully stripped of their plasma shields and were unable to regenerate their psionic energy. Numerous Shield Batteries had been built within the confines of the Tal'darim base, but having Protoss warriors leave the frontline to recharge their shields caused the attack to lose momentum. More often than not, by the time the Zealots, Stalkers, Immortals and High Templars had their shields recharged as they returned to battle, the Zerg defenders had mostly recovered from their initial slaughter. In any case, most of the Shield Batteries' energy cores were now depleted from the continued attritional battle against the Zerg, and most of their hive cluster defenses still held firm against Protoss attacks. Ulrezaj himself led more attacks with Archons, but the Zerg used Infestors to slow down his movement with their fungal growth ability, before Queens moved in to attack his fellow Archons. Although their attacks did little against him, the fact remained that the Dark Archon was vastly outnumbered and was forced to withdraw from the frontline.

To that end, Ulrezaj knew the bombardment was necessary to complete the task at hand. The Zerg could have sent up flyers to the planet's higher orbit to deal with the Carriers, but apparently this was not among their higher thinking in terms of strategy. Their defense tactic had been based on the assumption that their adversary would make either a surface attack or a low altitude aerial attack. As such, the energy bombardments had caught them completely by surprise, and most of the Zerg creatures were incinerated before they even knew what was happening.

Those that saw the danger fared no better, as the sheer intensity of the bombardment overwhelmed them. Zerglings, Hydralisks, Roaches and Ultralisks that had sufficient time to burrow underground were burned to ashes like all the other Zerg ground creatures, while Mutalisks, Overseers, and Corruptors scattered about, desperately trying to avoid the energy beams, only to fly into the line of fire of other energy beams. Most simply couldn't get away in time, as the purification blasts from the Carriers were too vast in scale and the destruction caused proved to be too widely spread.

The Zerg ground defenses suffered the same fate. Despite the Zerg Spore Cannons used to open fire on the Tal'darim Carriers in orbit, it made little difference. Indeed, due to the sheer power of their corrosive spores, easily capable of eating through the golden ships' armor, they were the first targets to be fired upon by the Carriers. By the time the Spore Cannons were starting to return fire, about the only ones that remained were the ones located in the hive cluster itself, having been spared destruction on Ulrezaj's orders. Nevertheless, as the Zerg had moved too many Spore Cannons into the hive cluster defensive positions, there were too few that remained in the hive cluster itself to be of any threat to the Protoss ships above. To compound matters, these were considered advanced Zerg structures, which made them much more difficult to be mutated from Drones.

As the energy bombardments continued, the Tal'darim could see more and more chaotic activity occur within the Zerg hive cluster. The hatcheries, lairs, and hives began to supply larvae at a faster rate, desperately trying to replace the losses sustained. The remaining Zerg ground and air units desperately tried to find ways around the bombardment energy beams to withdraw back into their hive cluster, though most had little success in this. And with much of the defenses burned from orbit, the surviving Spore and Spine Crawlers uprooted themselves and began to move deep into the hive cluster to guard the main Zerg structures against the hostile invaders.

At this point, Ulrezaj entered a telepathic state. "Now, Duran, do you see the error in your ways? You had feared that such a move would destroy the hive cluster completely, and you have been proven wrong."

"Very well, dark one," came the reply. "With this purification nearly complete, you are to proceed deep into the primary hive cluster. The components I require will be there."

"What could it possibly contain that you do not possess?" the Dark Archon asked. "Kerrigan may have evolved the Zerg, but you have the very foundations of the Zerg at your disposal."

"Not everything in there is Zerg, young Ulrezaj. Most of what is needed for my purpose will be located in Kerrigan's hive, but you will find something in her hive cluster that you may not expect. It is a sign of the very last humanity that had remained within her after she had become the Queen of Blades."

* * *

**Aiur**

Jim watched from the screen as terran and Protoss forces advanced forward, slowly moving into position for the final assault on Aiur. Virtually all of the Zerg elsewhere on the planet had been killed, only those around the Overmind's husk remain. Once the Zerg here are defeated, Aiur will be free again.

It will not be easy, however. Orbital scans had indicated that the scattered Zerg from elsewhere on Aiur along with those that successfully broke out of Antioch had linked up with the Zerg defenders around the Overmind. Orbital recon scans had indicated that the Zerg were mobilizing their defenses, preparing for an assault. The latest scans had indicated that the total number of defenders around the Overmind had now swelled to almost 700 million, and more creatures were still being bred.

Granted they were outnumbered by the terran and Protoss forces, but the Zerg had the advantage of defending. It was always easier to defend a position than to attack it, and to compound matters, the Zerg numbers could be replaced and replenished much more easily, some of them faster than even the Protoss war machines could be replaced.

Thus now, he and Artanis were planning out the final stages of the offensive on the bridge aboard the Shield of Aiur. The Protoss command Mothership was much larger than other Motherships, almost twice as large as them and more than four times the size of the Hyperion. Nevertheless, it was still considered tiny compared to the three Zerg Leviathans protecting the Overmind's body, and they would be no doubt be the key to cracking the Zerg defenders there.

Jim agreed with the Protoss Hierarch that once the Leviathans are killed, it would be likely that it would be enough to break the rest of the Zerg defenders' morale. How to kill them was a completely different matter. Despite killing the one on Char's orbital platform, it had come at the cost of dozens of Vikings in the air, as well as Goliaths on the ground. Yet Sarah had told him that the Leviathan there was far from ready for battle it has not yet matured, and was only used as a last desperate attempt to prevent the Raiders from destroying the coolant towers. Indeed, after collecting the tissue samples from its remains, Stetmann had theorized that the Leviathan destroyed there was merely the equivalent of a two year old kid, nowhere near the full potential a full grown adult.

This concerned Raynor greatly, as after looking over the orbital scans, Sarah had confirmed to him that the three Leviathans over the Overmind were fully matured adults, and such Zerg creatures were specifically bred to withstand repeated attacks from the heaviest terran weapons, even tactical nuclear strikes and yamato cannon attacks from BattleCruisers.

Artanis had promised that the Daelaam Protoss had been developing starships that would far exceed the power the Motherships, and reports from Shakuras were coming in that the first was heading towards Aiur right now. As such, the current plan of attack was to inflict only moderate damage on the Zerg defenders. This would give them the impression that the battle is not going as bad as they believe, and thus there would be no need to use the Leviathans. Only when the Protoss starship has reached the battlefield would the attacks increase in intensity, and Artanis had assured Jim that such a weapon would have little difficulty in defeating the Zerg behemoth flyers.

For that reason, it was decided that rather than attacking the Zerg defenders head on, terran and Protoss forces would instead move into a position where the Overmind's corpse would be completely encircled, then close the ring. On the ground and in the air, the forces of both races were now awaiting the order to commence the attack.

Despite the tension problems with terran soldiers and Protoss warriors, both Jim and Artanis agreed that it was better to mix them up in the offensive rather than keep them strictly segregated. After fighting the Zerg for so long, both sides admitted that each possessed weapons in their respective arsenals that would deal with certain Zerg creatures more effectively.

As the Protoss greatly outnumber the terran military forces, it wasn't possible for uniform blending, but neither Jim nor Artanis saw this as much of a problem. From the north, Warfield's elite infantrymen would be backed up by Mohandar and his Void Rays, where they will be supported by Siege Tanks and Colossi, to deal with any heavy Zerg strains. To the northwest, many of the Dominion BattleCruisers will be supported by Urun and his Phoenix interceptors to deal with any Zerg flyers and Scourge, backed up by Ataldis and his Dark Templar brethren to deal with the Zerg ground forces. Selendis's Carriers would strike from the northeast and supported by Wraiths and backed up by the Raiders' infantrymen, as Jim felt he owed the female executor such a favor after what the Raiders had done to her forces on Haven.

On the west flank, Nova will be leading former Dominion ghosts to cut across the heavy concentration of Zerg Virophages, specifically designed to slow down attacking infantry. Once enough had been cleared, the Purifiers, Soul Hunters, and Vindicators from Zekrath's Shelak Tribe would join in to decimate the Zerg ground forces there. To the east, the Raiders' BattleCruisers would handle the Zerg flyers and head towards the Overmind's husk, supported by the ground warriors of Artanis's Akilae Tribe.

With some of the heaviest Zerg ground forces concentrated in the south, the Mechanical Divisions have been mobilized. Even the Odin heavy walker that Jim stole from Valhalla was present, backed up by the Thors and Colossi. They were further supported by the A.R.E.S. and S.E.T.H. warbots so as to make quick work of the Ultralisks, Brutalisks, and Omegalisks. Tabrenus's Furinax Tribe would fight on the southwest flank, back up by the liberated prisoners from New Folsom, as well as some of the mercenaries Jim had hired during the course of the war.

Finally, to the southeast, Sarah would lead the Raiders' ghosts across the Zerg Spore and Spine Crawler defenses, as no one knew their weaknesses better than her. Vartanil, formerly a Tal'darim, had understood the experience of being corrupted and manipulated, so he and his Protoss warriors would fight along her side. This would also give greater confirmation to the rest of the Protoss that Sarah had indeed changed from her time with the Zerg.

In reserve, Nahaan and his Ara Tribe warriors would be constantly monitoring the battlefield, and would send their warriors to the appropriate positions when necessary. Artanis had instructed most of the Motherships to be positioned in each of the sectors, to lend their assistance if needed. Jim himself had ordered that the BattleCruisers carrying the stocks of dry ice they had confiscated from New Folsom position themselves just out of range of the battlefield, but ready to enter the heat of battle at a moment's notice.

Overall, it was a reasonable balance of forces. Each of the specified sectors were capable of sending their forces to quickly reinforce other sectors if necessary, and Jim had no doubt that such actions would occur during the course of the battle. Nevertheless, both he and Artanis were confident that once the assault began, nothing would stop them from scouring the Zerg off Aiur, once and for all.


	42. Chapter 42

**Author's Note: All right people, it's time for a new chapter. For the time being, the battle on Aiur will take priority over the others, but don't worry, the other areas I have written will still play their roles****. For those of you who recall, back at the end of chapter 28**** I had Duran locate the severed wing of the Queen of Blades, but since then I have not mentioned anything about that.**

**Well, that was only because it wasn't very important to, but it doesn't mean it's been forgotten or anything like that. It is my intention that everything written, however long ago, will eventually come to play its part in the story, you just have to wait it out and see.**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please review and I'll see you next time.**

* * *

Chapter 42

**Unknown Location**

Duran observed from a distance as the experimentation on the hybrid cloning continued to be carried out. Although his master had allowed him to proceed, the fact remained that despite the vast numbers of cloned hybrids that have been forged, none of them could be used without his master's consent. The Dark Voice had made it clear to him that if they do not respond to his commands, they would be considered a failure in Duran's experiment.

It was exactly why he had made efforts to take the hybrid cloning to a completely different level after he had retrieved the Queen of Blade's severed wing on Ulaan. Surprisingly enough, the Zerg minions had overlooked this matter, and it had been in well preserved condition by the time he had arrived to obtain it.

Although the wing itself was technically not part of Kerrigan prior to her infestation, the fact that they had been part of her during her time with the Zerg made a difference. When he had deceived her into thinking he was her consort all those years ago, Duran had seen how effectively she had been able to use her new limbs in combat, killing Khalai and Nerazim Protoss alike with relatively little effort. The Overmind had done well in its infestation for her to be able to learn and master such fighting skills so quickly.

Nevertheless, such actions would now backfire on her. Duran had known that the psionic energy coursed through her entire body, and the wings proved no exception. Despite being severed, the tests had clearly confirmed that there remained psionic energy within them, and it was his hope that energy could be harnessed. As they contained virtually none of Kerrigan's human DNA, it was impossible to use the cloning processes and re-create the Queen of Blades, and then have her mind genetically engineered to be loyal to him.

The attempts to harness its energies fared no better. Despite the outcome of her infestation by the Zerg and having no negative effects on her psionic abilities, the same could not be said when replicating these energies and incorporating them into the cloned hybrids. The energy assimilation was successful, but rather than enhancing the hybrid, the psionic energies conflicted with their own energies. This caused the cloned hybrids to be weakened even further, and before long Duran had been forced to abandon this idea in his experiments.

The entire hybrid cloning process was not developing well. Despite being dormant, the cloned hybrids continued to emanate psionic signatures. However, unlike the original hybrids, their signatures were unresponsive to the Dark Voice's telepathy. To his master, this only reinforced his view that the cloning process will continue to result in failure.

However, Duran was unwilling to give up. The cloned hybrids may not be as powerful as the original hybrids, but they possessed virtually all of their abilities, including the ability to corrupt and enslave both Zerg and Protoss alike. All they needed now was a way to obey commands, and he was confident that the components needed to achieve this were on Char. This was the reason why he had requested Ulrezaj to attack Kerrigan's hive cluster there, and while the Dark Archon was not informed of this, the request had been backed up by the Dark Voice, and Duran had no doubt that Ulrezaj would never dare to question his master's motive.

* * *

**Dominion Facility, Undisclosed Location**

General Ridgeway looked over the reports from the Dominion scientists and engineers and their analysis of the ancient Protoss stones he and his men had so painstakingly obtained on Aiur. Normally he couldn't care less what the Dominion eggheads did with it, but this time was different. Although he had succeeded in his mission, the transmissions he had received from Mengsk had clearly indicated that the Dominion emperor refused to take failure as an option.

Nevertheless, the reports he was reading made little sense to him. Granted Ridgeway was no special Dominion operative, but with most military operations, once the mission is over their respective officers would be able to have a much better understanding of the picture, and such was not the case here. The gist of the reports were regarding the comparison between terran psionic abilities and Protoss psionic abilities, yet it had been confirmed by all of the Dominion scientists that Mengsk had no intention of enhancing Dominion ghosts, or at least not in the way that the general is expecting.

The general had read enough. Whatever Mengsk was planning, if the clues were written in the reports, he couldn't find any trace of it. He looked up and turned his head towards one of the Dominion scientists, hoping to get a better answer.

"This psionic ability data doesn't mean anything to me," the general stated. "The Dominion has known about the Protoss psionically stronger than us for years. What does this have to do with the stones collected from Aiur?"

"Protoss psionic abilities are compatible with their technology," the scientist answered. "Every building, no matter what purpose it serves, is powered by a combination of psionic and mechanical technology. From their industrial facilities to their religious churches, they all share that same trait. These stones you acquired from some Protoss temple ruins are no exception to the rule."

"And what use are they to us? I know Dominion engineers have worked hard to incorporate the aspects of Protoss weapons into our arsenal, but they haven't exactly met with the success we had hoped for in the few short years."

"Weapons exist in multiple forms, general. You should know that. Not all of them are in the form of guns, bombs, or energy weapons that can vaporize a man. The emperor has used the media as a weapon for years to influence the Dominion citizen's way of thinking about others, whether they are Kel-Morian, Umojan, ex-Confederates, pirates, or mercenaries. It has been among the main reasons why we have been able to spread our influence to other worlds within such a short about of time."

"And yet that tactic has been turned against us ever since Raynor broadcasted his message on Korhal. Mengsk's order to stop the rioting with the military may have been sound, but the soldiers started off disastrously, shooting at the rioters. All that ended up doing was cause more rioting and weaken the Dominion even further, and cost us even more time and energy to finally quell them all. Regardless, that's beside the point. Are you suggesting the stones my boys excavated on Aiur are weapons as well?"

"In some form, yes. We are trying to learn more about them so we can understand their nature. Once we do, it's possible we can find a way to extract their energy and incorporate them into the Dominion military, or simply find a way to weaponize them."

Ridgeway rolled his eyes. "You're telling me after those reports I've read over, you don't know a thing about these stones?"

"Of course we do, but not to the extent we had hoped for. Unlike the emperor, his son Valerian is very interested in archeology, and if we had him and his associates, we would have a much better grasp on what kind of Protoss technology we're dealing with here. Unfortunately, he refuses to be like his father and we have been unable to contact him."

"So what do you know so far about the stones?"

"They contain some form of energy found in virtually every aspect of Protoss culture. We're not in a state of war with them, but there have nevertheless been hostile encounters with the Protoss in the past. Most of the Dominion military showed more interest in better ways of killing them, but me and the other scientists feel that cannot be done unless we understand them better."

"I agree with that," Ridgeway conceded. "But you haven't answered my question, not in the specific way anyway. What kind of energy are we talking about here?"

"From the corpses of Protoss we have studied in the past, along with their vehicles and ships, and sometimes even the wreckage of their buildings, it would appear they all contain a specific energy signature. After analysis of the stones you've brought here, it would appear these stones give off the same energy signature."

"Do the Protoss just naturally give off this signature or something?"

"No sir," the scientist answered. "It would appear that this energy is some sort of power source, maybe even the main power source. From all our studies, so far we have yet to find a single Protoss building, or even unit that does contain this energy signature in some form."

"Then this could be their main weakness," the general stated. "It's no different than ours from a military standpoint. You want to assault a heavily fortified base without catastrophic casualties, you wreck the base's power grid. Once you do that, you cut off the main power source to the base, so all of their defenses become useless and you can just stroll right in."

"It is all we have discovered on these stones so far, general."

"It's not enough," Ridgeway said calmly. "My boys aren't going to be satisfied with this answer. All you've given me here is what could possibly be the Protoss Achilles' Heel. It'll be good and all should the day come and the state of war breaks out between us and then, but right now it's the Zerg who are our enemies."

"We're aware of that, but as I said, this energy appears to be major Protoss power source. It seems to be able to power everything, including their weapons, weapons used to kill the Zerg with."

"So you're saying the energies in these stones are some sort of weapon we can use?"

"It's just a theory, but it certainly seems to suggest that. The research team is working as fast as we can to find out more about the matter."

* * *

**Overmind's Corpse, Aiur**

Deep in the core of the Zerg hive clusters nestled around the Overmind, the hybrid observed from a distance as the battle unfolded. Due to being outnumbered by the combined might of the terrans and Protoss, it was to be expected that the Zerg numbers were being slaughtered so quickly.

Nevertheless, this continued to prove a serious weakness under the current circumstances. Although the Zerg had understood the concept of deception and manipulation under combat conditions, it had been so rarely used that such traits are mostly not part of their natural instincts. This is mostly due to the fact that the might of the Zerg swarm outnumbered its adversaries in almost every possible situation, and this was still technically true even after Kerrigan's defeat on Char. The Zerg casualties suffered there were devastating, but when compared to the total number of Zerg that were still present on the volcanic planet, the losses were relatively small.

Here however, the Zerg forces could not be replenished as quickly due to the fact that almost every other hive cluster on Aiur has been destroyed. This meant a more conservative approach was needed, but the Zerg creatures don't seem to understand that. Rather, they are still attacking and defending in the way they normally do: continuously pour more and more of their numbers at the terran and Protoss forces to wear them down, and eventually overwhelm them.

This was clearly a fatal error, but without the proper leadership, it takes much effort for the Zerg creatures to be ordered to ignore their natural instincts. The Overlords and Queens had gotten used to taking orders from the Cerebrates, and later from the Queen of Blades. While he was able to control the Zerg to obey his orders, the instinct factor remained a difficulty that has yet to be overcome, and most of the Zerg were very reluctant to go against their standard way of thinking.

Fortunately, despite the continued success of the terran and Protoss forces in pushing towards the Overmind's corpse, it would appear that their progress was moving at a much slower pace than the hybrid had anticipated. It would almost seem as they were holding back and not using the full might of their warriors to scour Aiur of the Zerg, and the hybrid suspected that this may be due to the combined presence of the Leviathans and James Raynor's influence.

The Protoss were prideful and arrogant, but they were not stupid. Despite the fact they still saw combat as glorious, their defeat on Aiur during the Zerg invasion had clearly caused them to rethink their tactics and strategies. No doubt the terran James Raynor would have influenced them into thinking traditions must be broken in order to achieve greater success, and this would explain why the Protoss warriors have not devoted everything in their power to attacking the Leviathans just yet. They must be hoping to draw the massive Zerg flyers out, away from their defensive positions, so that both terran and Protoss forces will be able to engage them on their terms.

The hybrid would have none of this. Despite their immense power, the Leviathan was among the most difficult Zerg strains to hatch, and then successfully breed to adulthood. Given the limited Zerg resources at his disposal, the chances that even an infant Leviathan could be bred onto the battlefield would be virtually impossible. As such, he had issued specific orders that the Leviathans were only to engage the terran and Protoss attackers if the threat is imminent, and only on territory still occupied by the Zerg. This in turn would give them the field advantage and given them greater chances of survival and prevail against their enemies.

Therefore, the hybrid decided it was time to turn his attention to another Zerg strain, one that almost no terran or Protoss even knows exist, let alone know of its combat potential. They had been among the mightiest ground creatures that had ever been assimilated into the swarm, and now it was time they finally made their debut felt to the terran and Protoss invaders.

Reaching out with his mind, the hybrid touched the minds of the Overlords and Overseers. Despite Kerrigan's efforts to evolve other Zerg strains to become extremely intelligent and independent, they still ranked among the top for the most intelligent Zerg creatures.

"You and your minions have performed as I had expected in your defense of the Overmind. Your actions are to be commended. Nevertheless, the terrans and Protoss are increasingly threatening the Zerg positions here, and it is thus time to introduce one of the Zerg's mightiest beasts. Awaken the Zerg Kraken."

* * *

**Above the Aiur Battlefield**

Flying high above the battlefield, Jim watched from the Shield of Aiur Mothership as the battle below raged. So far, the battle was progressing according to plan. By not concentrating their full might, the three Zerg Leviathans have remained in their defensive positions, only serving the purpose of hatcheries and spawning larvae at an accelerated rate in the hopes to replenish the Zerg numbers that had been killed. This strategy of course was essentially a negative one, as the Zerg were being slaughtered faster than they could be replaced, but such a loss was not yet apparent to the Zerg defenders there.

The battle reports from the Observers were constantly pouring in. Together with Artanis and his trusted advisors, Jim scanned over the tactical data to ground and air forces alike. On the west flank, Nova's attack was coming along very well. The initial strategy of using ghosts to sneak past the Virophages had to be abandoned, as the Zerg structures began spraying their deadly slime everywhere, which negated the ghost's cloaking effectiveness. The Vindicators, Purifiers and Soul Hunters had to be called in to deal with the structures right away, while Nova and the rest of the ghosts provided fire support from a distance. Due to the Protoss warrior's shielding, the Virophages' slime was not capable of having an immediate effect on them, and as long as they were protected from other Zerg creatures, there was little difficulty in dealing with the Zerg. Indeed, most of the Zerg ground units only consisted of Zerglings, Roaches, and Hydralisks, sometimes backed up by Devouring Ones and Hunter Killers. As the genetically enhanced Zerg weren't as numerous in number, Nova had used her expert sniping ability to kill many of them from a distance, while the other ghosts followed her example and did the same with the other Zerg. Occasionally the Purifiers were forced to break away from their original role as the Zergling attacks became too numerous in number, but thanks to the power of their energy lances, the lightning arcs made short work of their adversaries. Every now and then the occasional Ultralisk would also move into the area to attack Nova and the other ghosts, but this was of little threat as the Vindicators used the power of their hovering platform to move in and slice at the creature's carapace. Although Ultralisks had very strong skin, it came at the cost of their speed, and the Vindicators used this to their advantage. Utilizing the temporary flight capability of their hovering platform, most adopted a hit and run tactic, slicing into the Ultralisk's carapace before boosting themselves into the air to avoid the creature's deadly Kaiser Blades, before another Vindicator took the previous one's place and the cycle repeated itself. As long as Nova and the other ghosts continued to provide fire support against the other Zerg, this tactic made short work of some of the most feared ground creatures the Zerg possessed.

On their right flank, the Furinax Tribe Protoss warriors had slightly harder difficulty. Unlike most other Protoss tribes, the Furinax Tribe consist more of weaponsmiths, craftsmen, architects and technologists, a contrast to the other tribes that consist of warriors. Compounded by the fact that heavier Zerg strains were present in their area, more and more requests were issued by them for further reinforcements and assistance. Fortunately, the Omegalisks and Brutalisks were also slow to move into position, and this allowed sufficient numbers of A.R.E.S. and S.E.T.H. warbots to be moved from the southern flank to assist them. The Gamma S.E.T.H.s were especially effective in this area, their 8-barreled rotary cannons made short work of the Roaches and Hydralisks, leaving the Zerg Infestors vulnerable to psionic storm attacks. Many of them burrowed underground to avoid the lightning, but any hope to stay hidden proved useless as the sheer number of Observers in the area quickly detected their position, allowing Zealots to close in on their position.

Of course, the Infestors were far from defenseless themselves, and the ones defending the Overmind's husk were more advanced versions. Somewhat similar to the Zerg Defiler, the Infestors here possessed a disease ability that sprayed their toxins in all directions, and any units unfortunate enough to be caught in its path would succumb to it. This claimed the lives of many Zealots, and gave the Infestors the chance to move forward towards the terran warbots, where they would use their fungal growth ability to slow it down, before using their neural parasite to turn the terrans' own weapons against them.

Fortunately, the Furinax Protoss had anticipated this, and had made good usage of their High Templars in their hallucination ability. As such an ability was not as straining on their psionic energies as the psionic storm, dozens of hallucinations were used on terran warbots so the Infestors couldn't tell which ones were real, and in their confusion, other High Templars utilized their feedback ability to drain the Zerg creatures' energy. Without their energy, the Infestors were defenseless, and they were slaughtered by the Stalkers blinking into position.

Mass numbers of Pygalisks had swarmed into the area to kill the High Templars due to their lack of combat ability, but this was usually offset by the presence of Beta S.E.T.H.s. As they were smaller than their Ultralisk counterparts, the Pygalisks' Kaiser Bladers had a much shorter range, and therefore had to get within close range to use them effectively. The Beta S.E.T.H. 's hellfire flamethrower was thus able to incinerate many of them before they could do so, while the High Templars retreated away to relative safety to avoid the flames. The ones that were able to get through immediately targeted the warbot's fuel tanks, know that it's their primary weakness, but the Beta S.E.T.H. was designed to use both their right armed energy blade as well as their left armed flamethrower simultaneously in combat. As the warbot was much more agile in comparison to the Thor walker, it was able to successfully slice at the Pygalisks with its energy blade, where most of them were sliced in two before they had a chance to strike.

In the air, Mutalisks were utilized to deal with the Beta S.E.T.H.s, and swarms of them descended down on the terran warbots. However while their Glaive Wurm attacks proved effective in combat, they had to get within very close distance to achieve such effectiveness. The number of Hydralisks and Roaches pouring into the area had increased to keep the Stalkers busy, but they had not taken into account the Alpha S.E.T.H.s. Although the heat lasers from their eyes were not meant to combat aerial enemies, the Mutalisks were trying to get within range so that a single Glaive Wurm attack would cause the Beta S.E.T.H. to explode, and this meant they attempted to fly to within less than 40 feet of the warbots, rendering them vulnerable to the Alpha S.E.T.H. 's heat lasers, and many of them were shot down this way.

Yet despite the success from the reports the Observers were recording, something startling was appearing from the reports. Seismic activity was starting to increase from every sector. But this wasn't anything like some of the large Zerg strains such as Ultralisks, Brutalisks, or Omegalisks unburrowing or anything like that. Nor was it like Zerg Nydus Worms popping out from under the terran and Protoss forces, ready to ambush them. The Observers had confirmed that it was indeed Zerg activity that was causing the seismic disturbance, but none could provide any intel anything more specific.

Jim pressed his hands harder onto the console overlooking the battle. Whatever is causing this, it's clearly about to show its presence very soon. And since no one seemed to have any data about it, it's clearly something none of them had ever seen before.


	43. Chapter 43

**Author's Note: All right everyone. Today marks 18 months since Wings of Liberty was released, so this would be the perfect moment to put up another chapter. For all of you who have looked at my fic and reviewed, I thank you all.**

**And for you who have enjoyed my fic, I would like for you guys to consider looking at another one: "The True Hybrid" by the author MarchenHope.**

**She and I had discussed online about ideas for our fics with each other, and we have worked together quite well to improve each other's fics.**

**Anyways, it's just a suggestion if you guys choose to look.**

**And to Blackhole1 who reviewed my last chapter, asking me about why didn't Kerrigan inform anyone about the Zerg Kraken monster, you're getting too far ahead of yourself. I did factor in that, the reasons will be revealed in time.**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.**

* * *

Chapter 43

**Northern Attack Flank, Aiur**

General Warfield repeatedly fired with his C-14 Gauss Rifle alongside his marines and other infantrymen. They were to provide cover fire against the smaller Zerg creatures, while the towering Colossi overhead opened up with their thermal lances, incinerating Roaches and Hydralisks alike. Lurkers had moved into position to counter this, but each time the creatures used their subterranean spine attack, it automatically gave away their burrowed positions. This led to Reapers to quickly move into position with their jet packs, and to use their D-8 Charges against them. As the Lurkers couldn't move while burrowed, it had to unburrow itself in order to move away, but since it had no defensive capabilities while above ground, this made them easy targets for the marines.

In the air, Brood Lords continued to wreck havoc on the advancing Marauders and Firebats, as their broodlings quickly tore their armor apart, and the latter usually exploded in a fireball, killing Reapers and Zealots nearby. Fortunately, both his boys and the Raiders had learned from this weakness, and all of the Firebats now had Juggernaut Plating upgraded into their CMC Armor, and this included the fuel tanks on their backs. While in the face of swarms of broodlings meant they still couldn't last very long, many of them were able to survive long enough to retreat back towards the Medivac Dropships, rather than just dropping like flies.

Although the Brood Lords themselves have no defense against aerial opponents, the fact remained there were simply too many in number for the Protoss Void Rays to handle all at once. The sheer number of the Zerg flyers overwhelmed them, and despite that hundreds of them were being slaughtered on their way to the ground troops, enough continued to pour through to severely reduce their advance towards the Overmind.

More and more Wraiths had to be called away from the other flanks to deal with the Brood Lords. Vikings had initially been used, but then had to be quickly abandoned as the swarms of Banelings attacked Warfield's forces, and the marines were being overwhelmed. Although most of the Banelings ignored the marines and went straight for the Siege Tanks instead, their destruction would reduce terran artillery support, and Warfield would have none of that. Many of them were already left burning wrecks by the Zerg suicide units, and the Vikings' Gatling Cannons were called in to prevent further Siege Tanks from being destroyed.

Marauders were ordered to deal with the surviving Hydralisks that survived the Colossi attacks. While their Punisher Grenades were not capable of killing the creatures with a single blow, there were very few Hydralisks that succeeded in running the Colossi gauntlet unscathed. Warfield had given them priority as they had the ability to target air units, and the Protoss Observers in the area must not be lost.

Initially, the general had argued against using the Observers, as they had light shields and weak armor, and had no offensive or defensive capabilities of any kind. Raynor, however, pointed out the fact that while the Ravens were more durable, they did not possess the cloaking ability the Observers had, and could be easily seen. Thus in the case of the Observer, as long as they were out of range of Overseers, they would be safe.

However, this had backfired when the Zerg had moved vast numbers of Overlords into the area. Some of them moved from one point to another, excreting creep to allow faster movement for Zerg ground forces, while others morphed into Overseers to spot for Dark Templars, Ghosts, Observers, Wraiths, and any other cloaked units that the terrans and Protoss would throw at them. As such, Warfield was forced to abandon his initial strategy to target the Overseers as they were simply too many to kill. Nevertheless, as the Overseers were defenseless themselves, many of his marines targeted them whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Of course, those opportunities were becoming more and more rare. As the advance continued, reports were coming in of more and more encounters with Devouring Ones. Genetically enhanced Zerglings, they were much more difficult to kill than their standard counterparts due to their improved carapace, yet retaining the sheer speed of the Zergling. Even the Goliaths were taking a heavy beating from them, despite their autocannons constantly blazing towards the Zerg creatures. Despite the improvements to their armor via Regenerative Bio-Steel that Stetmann had created, using internal Nanobots to repair hull damage, many of the Goliaths were forced back towards the Science Vessels.

Despite having been mostly replaced by the Raven, Warfield was glad that Raynor's Raiders chosen not to completely discard the Science Vessel as the Dominion had. Although it was much more difficult to build, and for that matter replace, the few Science Vessels the Raiders had at their disposal had state of the art nanotechnology that allowed it to repair just about any vehicle or starship it came across. While this wasn't very effective in the case with Protoss ships due to their more advanced technology, it had worked wonders on terran mechanical units, and many of the Dominion Goliath pilots under the general's command owed their lives to the Science Vessels. As there were too few of them in number on the battlefield, Warfield had ordered that the Science Vessels were to remain behind the frontlines, never exposing themselves to Zerg attacks. While most of the ground troops protested this, given the Irradiate capability would facilitate greatly against the Zerg, Warfield refused to risk the aerial crafts in such a manner as each one lost would be simply too difficult to replace.

In terms of the air support, the general knew the Void Rays had their own share of difficulties to overcome, as more and more Hunter Killers were fed into the slaughter. Stronger and more powerful than the average Hydralisk, their needle spines were able to tear through the armor of Protoss ships relatively quickly, yet their relatively weak carapace gave the Void Rays' prismatic beams no time to charge up. More and more marines had to be called in to deal with the improved Zerg strains, but even with their 30mm M98 Combat Shield, this offered little protection against the Hunter Killers' needle spines. With the exception of being slightly larger, the Hunter Killer looked identical to the standard Zerg Hydralisk, and this made their task easier in running the gauntlet and getting past the Colossi's thermal lances roasting every Zerg unfortunate enough caught in its path.

As such, Warfield was forced to increase his requests on the specialist marines. Thanks to Dr. Saunders and his science and engineering team, along with Raynor's personal science geek Stetmann, along with the resources they had acquisitioned from New Folsom, the experimental plasma guns could now be produced at a much faster rate, although still not to the point where it could be equipped to infantrymen on a divisional scale. The Raiders thus created specialist teams composed of the most experienced marines to be armed with them, and to be sent to the hot spots where Zerg resistance proved fiercest.

The results had proven well within the expectations. Although the plasma guns were not strong enough to kill the Zerg Queens or Lurkers with a single shot, the damage was clearly enough to leave them badly scarred and barely able to move, let alone fight. Despite their rapid healing ability, such a feat was no easy task even for them, and this had left most Queens and Lurkers easy prey for the Reapers and Marauders. Only the Ultralisk was strong enough to take such a blow and still keep fighting, but in the face of concentrated fire, even these massive Zerg creatures could not last long.

But despite the success, Warfield knew it wouldn't last. If the Zerg casualties continued to pile up, it wouldn't be long before the defenders used their Leviathans. Although the Protoss took pride in their massive starships, the aerial Zerg behemoths dwarfed them all, and the general was concerned what kind a defense would be effective against them.

* * *

**Northwestern Attack Flank, Aiur**

On their left flank, Urun remained unimpressed with the performance of the terran BattleCruiser starships. Primitive in design, they fared even less effectively against the Zerg Scourge compared to the mighty Protoss Carriers. Their plasma torpedo barrage ability was equally unimpressive. Although it had the ability to lay waste to a vast area on the ground beneath them, and turn just about every Zerg ground creature to ashes, it could only be used occasionally, as their ships required cooldown time before such a barrage could be used again. To make matters worse, by now most of the ground Zerg had anticipated this, and quickly burrowed beneath the ground to avoid the deadly attacks.

This was in complete contrast to the golden Carriers of the mighty Protoss fleets. At such a rapid speed and accurate targeting, the Carrier Interceptors were capable of even shooting the acid spines of Zerg Queens in midair. Most Zerg minions, ground or air, stood no chance against the swarms robotic strike crafts. Only the Scourge had the best chance, as their small size made it easy for the Interceptors to overlook and therefore head towards the Carriers. As it stood, Urun had his Phoenix interceptors had to divert almost all of their energies to defend the slow and hulking terran crafts, rather than assist Ataldis and his Dark Templar brethren on the ground.

The Dark Templars had run into their own trouble against the Zerg ground defenders. Although Ataldis was thankful for the terran plasma torpedo barrages, destroying some of the natural Zerg barriers they had set up to channel the Protoss into killing zones, the Zerg had quickly smartened up. Now Overlords were being rapidly moved to the remaining natural barriers to begin excreting creep, while Mutalisks and Corruptors were sent towards the Scouts and Phoenixes overhead to prevent them from interfering. As the Overlords covered the barriers in creep, Zerg Queens moved into position to place Creep Tumors on there so as to allow the creep to spread. Drones followed immediately after, moving parts of jungle foliage onto there to camouflage the tumors right away. As the creep was extremely durable and capable of near instant regeneration, it now meant that the plasma torpedo barrages, and even the yamato cannon attacks, would only have minimal effect on the barriers, and this meant unless the swarms of Overseers were taken out, the Dark Templars would have no choice but to accept appalling casualties as they pushed towards the Overmind's corpse.

Ataldis himself was skilled in the powers of the Void, though nowhere to the extent as Zeratul. Like the old Nerazim, he too possessed the Void Prison psionic ability. Indeed, he had used the power many times over to trap Roaches, Hydralisks, Lurkers and Infestors from attacking his Dark Templar brethren while the Lenassa and Zer'atai sliced them apart with their warp blades. However unlike Zeratul, Ataldis's ability wasn't strong enough to contain the fiercer Zerg units such as Queens and Ultralisks, and this had led to more and more frequent requests from Corsair assistance, although only a few of them were able to come to their aid as the heavy Zerg resistance in other sectors had forced their attention elsewhere.

Despite their success in trapping the heavier Zerg creatures within their disruption webs, this was often of little use as the terran BattleCruisers could not move into position fast enough to slay the beasts, while Stalkers that were able to get into position could not do sufficient damage to the Queens before the disruption web dissipated and the cybernetic war machines were torn apart by their claws. The Ultralisks were even worse, as a single swipe of their Kaiser Blade was sufficient to slice a Stalker in two, but luckily they weren't as fast or agile and gave the Stalkers a much better chance to escape.

It was for this reason that he had requested the presence of terran Banshee crafts to be brought into the area for their immediate assistance. Unlike Urun, Ataldis was much more willing to see the versatility of the terran ships. While defenseless against Zerg flyers, Observer reports from other sectors had their backlash rockets had proven to be lethal against almost all Zerg ground targets, and concentrated attacks from them were capable of killing even Brutalisks and Omegalisks with effective speed. According to James Raynor, it was the concentration of these crafts that had greatly assisted him during the invasion on Char, as their masses of rocket fire had greatly hampered the Queen of Blades's personal intervention in attacking the terran base defending the Xel'Naga artifact.

Ataldis hoped that these terran crafts truly lived up to their word, for as the masses over Overseers continued to pour into the area, his Dark Templar brethren were becoming easy targets for the Zerg Roaches and Hydralisks.

* * *

**Bridge, Shield of Aiur**

Aboard the Shield of Aiur, Artanis continued to read from the Observer reports regarding the flow of the battle. Despite the Zerg being slowly pushed back, more and more reports were coming in of terran grumblings, berating Raynor for adopting such a tactic that was putting their own lives on the line to clear Aiur of the Zerg, rather than simply using the Xel'Naga artifact which had so effectively killed the mass quantities of Zerg on Char. But the Protoss Hierarch knew Raynor was no fool. Upon arriving on Aiur, the artifact fragments were immediately taken off the terran ships, yet no Protoss could get near it without feeling their very essence being drained from them as they got within proximity to the ancient relic. Raynor had been right about the artifact being dangerous to the Protoss as well as the Zerg, and thus Probes were used to carry the fragments instead.

As no Protoss could get near it, reassembling the artifact from the 5 fragments would take too long by terrans alone, and even it could be done, Artanis would have forbidden its usage. With the artifact's energy nova fatal to Zerg and Protoss alike, such an assault would have to have been conducted by the terrans alone. And as there were nearly 700 million Zerg defenders around the Overmind, the terrans would have been greatly outnumbered. Given Kerrigan's desire to seize the relic for herself during the Zerg invasion, there would have been no reason to believe such a directive would have been changed should the artifact be within their reach again.

Raynor had agreed with him that leaderless or not, the Zerg must not wind up with the relic, and it is for that reason that the fragments were taken to the capital city of Antioch instead. Although reduced to a wasteland and currently unable to support life, Artanis had ordered that a small scale dig site be excavated in the city and the fragments hidden underground, before the entrances were closed up and buried so as to better conceal it from the Zerg. Being only in fragment form, the artifact's pulse emanations are weaker compared to when it's fully assembled, and Raynor had hoped that this would prevent the Zerg from being attracted to it as they had on Char.

Nevertheless, Artanis knew that such an action did not sit well with the terrans. Unlike the Protoss, they did not see combat as glorious, especially if the casualties begin to accumulate. The Xel'Naga artifact itself had greatly assisted in neutralizing the Zerg hive cluster, where the Observer scans had indicated combined with the smaller scale energy novas and the terrans' fanatical defense, the fully charged energy nova of the relic had killed some 275 million Zerg at the primary hive cluster, and it was their hope that this would greatly weaken the Zerg defenses here.

As if right on cue, Raynor walked up to him. "You know deep down I still wished there was a way to configure that artifact so that its energy wouldn't harm the Protoss, Artanis. We can kill all the smaller Zerg we want on the ground, it's not going to mean a thing against the Leviathans. The artifact would be a big help there."

"I agree with that, my friend," the Hierarch replied. "I am almost tempted by the idea in the hopes to quickly free our world from the Zerg once again. Yet despite that, I know that is something I simply cannot do. After the Zerg invasion of Aiur, and then a near similar one on Shakuras, our race has been greatly battered from the way it once was. Using the relic would kill vast numbers of Protoss as well, and we would risk having too few of our brethren left alive to rebuild our civilization on Aiur."

Jim nodded, before changing the subject. "And what about Sarah? Your Observers have recorded her actions on the ground too, you know. Now that you've finally got to see her without the Zerg infestation, you still think she is the ruthless Queen of Blades your people have seen her as all these years?"

"There is still debate on the matter," Artanis replied. "She is still a very fierce and deadly warrior, Zerg infestation or not, yet Vartanil seems to believe in her more than the other Protoss brethren do. He seems ready to forgive her for her past sins, but many of us remain uncomfortable on the issue."

"Doesn't surprise me. You told me about how this Rosemary Dahl woman had quickly earned his trust, so it looks like he seems to trust females more than the other Protoss do. Now yes, you can say the others think Sarah is just messing with his head, but you said it yourself that when it comes you leadership, Zeratul is needed. He was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, and you won't do the same?"

"During the Brood War, she had helped us kill vast numbers of Zerg on Char in order to claim the Khalis crystal. Many of us had felt she had indeed turned against the Zerg who had infested her, and we paid dearly for that belief. Despite her actions here on Aiur in helping us kill the Zerg creatures to reach the Zerg Overmind, there are those who feel this could be a similar treachery."

"But Zeratul had discovered the Overmind isn't really what we have been lead to believe all these years," Jim pointed out. "If that's true, then it's likely its actions could also not what be what we think it is, and that would include its interest in Sarah."

"And that is the driving force behind most of my brethren," Artanis explained. "We must extract every bit of knowledge we can from the creature. Only then will we finally be able uncover the truth."

* * *

**Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char**

Ulrezaj advanced forward with the Tal'darim warriors. With almost all of the Zerg defenses incinerated from the orbital Carrier bombardment, he and the Protoss Zealots escorting him faced little in terms of opposition. There had been the occasional Roach or Hydralisk, but they had been quickly and swiftly dealt with.

Nevertheless, the Dark Archon knew that this was would only be a temporary respite. Despite the fact the volcanic ground beneath them was covered with the corpses of Zerg creatures, the bombardment had only been meant to target the Zerg defenses, not the hive cluster itself. As such, almost all of the hatcheries, lairs, and hives within the hive cluster remained intact, as did most of the Zerg auxiliary building such as Spawning Pools, Hydralisk Dens, Roach Warrens, and Ultralisk Caverns, the very structures necessary to breed the fearsome Zerg beasts that had wreaked havoc on the Tal'darim. Fortunately, by now virtually all of the Zerg hives were depleted of larvae, and with most of the Queens killed during the bombardment, it meant that it would be some time before they could supply the larvae in sufficient numbers necessary.

Despite their loathing of the Zerg, the Tal'darim remained loyal to their Xava'tor. As such, when Ulrezaj had ordered them not to lay waste to the whole hive cluster, they had obeyed, only destroying the vital Zerg auxiliary structures so as to force the Drones to scurry out of the hatcheries in an attempt to mutate into them again, and this would make them easy prey for the Zealots, Stalkers, and Immortals.

Satisfied with the progress, the Dark Archon once again entered a telepathic state with Duran, now that the objective was within sight. "You had informed me that the components of what you seek lie within the hive cluster, and that I would know the moment I see it."

"So you have discovered it then?" came the reply.

"I have, but I still see no usage of it, nor any reason why Kerrigan would keep such a structure within her hive cluster. I have seen terran Command Centers become infested before, so why should this one be any different?"

"I suggest you look carefully at the insignia on the Command Center, young Ulrezaj. Your fellow Tal'darim will find it very familiar to them. One of the components I seek will be located within that infested terran installation."

"Very well, I will instruct my Protoss brethren to bring you what you seek. Now, what are the remaining components you desire to complete your plan?"

"Proceed towards Kerrigan's main hive. Beneath the infested grounds, you will discover one of the primary sources she has used to evolve the Zerg swarm to the way it is now. You should be very familiar with it yourself as you had experimented with something similar before, and it will be my reward to you for your services on Char."

"That is not what you seek though," Ulrezaj stated.

"Correct, dark one. Beneath the hive, there lies a dormant creature that I will require you to sample. Kerrigan had forged the beast as a symbol of Zerg might throughout the swarm, and now she will see her accomplishments return to haunt her."

Having heard enough, the Dark Archon teleported himself away in a swirl of black smoke and towards Kerrigan's main hive. It was time he discovered more about what Duran was planning at hand.


	44. Chapter 44

**Author's Note: Hey everyone, it's time for the next chapter to begin.**

**For you who have enjoyed my fic, I would like for you guys to consider looking at another one: "The True Hybrid" by the author MarchenHope.**

**She and I had discussed online about ideas for our fics with each other, and we have worked together quite well to improve each other's fics.**

**Anyways, it's just a suggestion if you guys choose to look.**

**In the last chapter, I'm a bit unsure how many of you had taken notice of the infested Command Center in Kerrigan's hive cluster, and if any of you know why she'd have such a thing.**

**All you have to do is think of one thing: it's not so much as why she'd care about the infested Command Center, it's more of _who_ the Command Center once belonged to...**

**In time, this infested Command Center will play a role in the fic, you'll all see that in the future.  
**

* * *

Chapter 44

**Aiur**

Felanis stood in front of the Tal'darim survivors, some of them carrying the scars of battle from the time spent on Aiur to defend themselves from the Zerg, and them later when fighting the Daelaam Protoss upon their return to scour their homeworld from the Zerg infestation. From what he could see from the Protoss crowd, gathered by the Daelaam Protoss from all over Aiur, it was quite clear they had mixed reactions.

Some of them were relieved to see their founder alive, though not unharmed. Others were angered upon hearing the news that their Xava'tor, all of which had never once even seen his face, was in reality the Dark Archon Ulrezaj. They felt they had been betrayed and manipulated, where their great leader only saw them as expendable tools to be used to achieve his personal goals. Most, however, did not blame Felanis, despite being the only one who has seen the Xava'tor. Despite the Sundrop corruption, the Tal'darim warriors did not lose all of their intellect, and most accepted Felanis's logic how the greater amount of exposure to the substance, the greater the chances of it impairing their judgment. To that end, after Felanis had explained all of what has happened, there were only a select few who were unwilling to forgive the Templar, as he too had been manipulated by Ulrezaj.

With regards to joining hands with the Daelaam Protoss however, it was a completely different story. Despite their minds had been cut off from the Khala, it did not change the fact that they remembered they once embraced it. To that end, Felanis felt that Ulrezaj's actions for turning them into their unquestioning servants were fatally in error.

From what he had seen of the Nerazim Protoss technology, Stalkers and Void Rays in particular, he had also seen their presence among his fellow Tal'darim brethren here on Aiur. The Dark Templars embraced the Void, and thus their technological designs were also infused with Void energy. That the Tal'darim warriors were able to employ the same designs had convinced his brethren that the Sundrop substance had caused them to be embraced by the Void just as the Dark Templars had, despite their hatred of the Nerazim.

It was clear to Felanis that Ulrezaj still had a long ways to go before he could bring the Khalai Protoss fully under his corruption. This, however, was overtaken by the news he had received from some of the Tal'darim of a completely different corruption.

According to some of the Tal'darim Templars, there had been a brief presence of terrans on their homeworld. From what he had gathered from Artanis and Zeratul, the terran faction belonged to the Dominion, a sworn enemy of James Raynor, who had fought alongside the Protoss and assisted them in the death of the Zerg Overmind. Yet what troubled Felanis was the fact that although the Tal'darim had attacked them on sight, all of them had sensed that there was a strange presence within their individual minds, encouraging their rage and fury towards the terrans.

Although the presence had been brief, lasting only a matter of hours, most of the Tal'darim who had experienced this explained that when it had waned, it had left them with very little memory of what had happened when that presence had descended upon them. It was only with careful and thorough interrogation with each and every Tal'darim warrior who had been subjected to this that Felanis was able to piece together the picture. Upon explaining the situation to Zeratul, the Nerazim concluded that it was entirely possible that some of the Tal'darim had become corrupted by the presence of a Protoss-Zerg hybrid in the same way he had encountered on Zhakul, where a powerful hybrid known as Maar had corrupted the Zhakul Guardians and enslaved the Protoss Preservers.

To Felanis, this was dire news. Although Zeratul had already told him about the hybrid when they had met in the ancient Xel'Naga Caverns, now it seems to confirm more and more hybrids were beginning to awaken. The Protoss Preservers were known to have exceptionally strong willpower, and if a single hybrid was able overpower them so easily, there could be no telling what an entire army of them could do. Having been told of the Xel'Naga prophecy on Ulaan and the encounter with Tassadar at the Overmind's final resting site, the Templar was deeply skeptical about the Zerg species, and even the Overmind itself, had been enslaved with the directive to exterminate all life, and that their actions were in reality not of their own free will. It was why he too agreed with the Protoss Hierarchy to exterminate the Zerg defenders around the Overmind's corpse so that more clues about the prophecy could be uncovered.

Unlike the rest of the Protoss who were participating in the battle, Felanis has been ordered to remain behind to ensure there wouldn't be any more hostilities between the Daelaam Protoss and the Tal'darim. With most of their scattered survivors on Aiur now all assembled in one place, he had the opportunity to talk some sense into them.

"This gathering of the Tal'darim is not about the integration into the Daelaam Protoss," he explained. "I know most of you still harbor hatred for many of our Khalai brethren for abandoning us on Aiur to the Zerg while they had escaped to the Dark Templar homeworld."

"They left us here to die!" A Zealot shouted. "The only reason we had survived at all is because the Zerg had suddenly lost interest in attacking us!"

"That was not something they had realized, young Templar," Felanis replied. "Do not forget, by the time the Overmind had finally been slain, there was only one functioning Warp Gate left on Aiur. According to many of the Khalai Protoss, had they not shut down the Warp Gate, far greater numbers of Zerg would have been able to reach Shakuras. Therefore, all that could have been done was try to save as many Khalai Protoss as possible, nothing more. From what I had heard from the Daelaam Protoss, attempts had been used to build more Warp Gates, enabling faster travel."

"Yet they chose not to do the same for us on Aiur?"

"If they had known the Zerg had stopped their rampage against us, I am sure they would have," Felanis assured. "Because of that, the Daelaam Protoss had feared the extinction of the entire Protoss race and civilization by the hands of the Zerg had they chosen to come to our aid. We are all warriors here, my brethren. Every one of us knows that sometimes during the course of battle, sacrifices are necessary in order to achieve the greater good."

"A sacrifice of billions of Khalai Protoss just so the fraction of survivors could associate with the fallen ones? It is total madness!" The Zealot accused. "We banished them from Aiur ages ago because they refused to embrace the light of the Khala as we had!"

"And they did not follow the way of the Conclave and banish the Khalai refugees from Shakuras," Felanis countered. "Do not forget, I too was a member of the Judicator Caste, which had been controlled by the Conclave Judicator Assembly. It was their actions that had nearly brought Aiur to the point of total extinction. It was only with the unification of Khalai and Nerazim Protoss that caused the Conclave to dissolve."

"I shall not join hands by those who are devoid of the light of the Khala!" Another Zealot spoke up. "Khas had united all of us through the Khala and the Dark Templar tribes chose to defy him! The Khalai refugees are traitors, having joined hands with the Nerazims and going against everything the Khalai Protoss stands for!"

"They had also helped some of the Tal'darim brethren to break their addiction to the Sundrop substance and restored the mental link to the Khala," Felanis replied. "This was not done by Khalai Protoss alone, but by Nerazim Protoss as well, even though they embrace the Void instead. As I stated before, this meeting is not about dissolving the Tal'darim and integrating ourselves into the Daelaam Protoss. Zeratul had made it clear that such a decision will be our choice alone. Should we choose not to, they will not force us. This meeting is about setting aside our hatred for them in order to accomplish a far greater goal."

A High Templar at that point spoke up. "Then you have called this meeting to discuss matters regarding our common enemy, the Zerg swarm."

Felanis nodded. "The veil creatures are a threat to both Khalai and Nerazim Protoss alike, and more than likely to all of creation. Despite the ancient Xel'Naga prophecy that has been uncovered, I find it hard to believe this entire time the Zerg were actually not the abominations we had fought against for so long."

"You wish for us to fight alongside the Daelaam Protoss to exterminate the Zerg," the High Templar stated.

"There is another factor," the Tal'darim leader explained. "Now that all of you have learned about the true identity of our Xava'tor, I know that all of you feel betrayed and manipulated. It has now been confirmed that the Dark Archon Ulrezaj has escaped his confines and is loose again, and the Daelaam Protoss have promised us that we will be given our chance for retribution for what he has done to all of us."

"Then we should ready our ships immediately to hunt the traitor down!"

"Do not be so quick, young Templar. Remember, your mind has been altered by the effects of Sundrop that Ulrezaj had given us, and thus your link to the Khala has been severed. It is from this Sundrop substance that had allowed Ulrezaj to corrupt and control us, and it is necessary to break the addiction first. The Daelaam Protoss have promised you to help restore the link to the Khala should you choose this. Once your minds are in the Khala once more, we will be free to take our revenge on our so-called Xava'tor."

Felanis could see some of the Tal'darim Protoss hesitate, while others were struggling with their feelings and pride. Many of them were weakening against his logic and reasoning as they were given a choice to join with the Daelaam Protoss or not, so he decided to include another reason.

"You must remember that the Sundrop substance is exactly the reason why the Tal'darim had even existed on Aiur," he explained. "When our world had been overrun by the Zerg and the last functioning Warp Gate had been shut down, vast numbers of Protoss had been left stranded on Aiur. Before the Tal'darim had been formed, all of us had been part of another survivor group: the Shel'na Kryhas. True, the Tal'darim had proven to be more efficient at killing the Zerg, but the Shel'na Kryhas had correctly determined that finding Protoss survivors stranded on Aiur was the greater priority. That all changed when Ulrezaj had given us the Sundrop substance. We had turned against our Shel'na Kryhas brethren, branding them as traitors to our Xava'tor."

One of the High Templars quickly caught on. "And now it has been proven that the Shel'na Kryhas had been right all along."

"Exactly," Felanis said. "Ulrezaj has much to answer for in turning us all into his slaves, and it is my hope that we will be able to bring him to justice. However, this can be done much more effectively once your links to the Khala are restored, so I encourage you to allow the Daelaam Protoss help you in that matter."

* * *

**Antioch Province, Aiur**

Executor Selendis watched from the bridge of her golden Carrier as the rest of her Carrier fleet continued on their work at decimating the Zerg defenses. Like a swarm of locusts, the Interceptors flew about at such speeds that it was virtually impossible for any of the Zerg ground creatures to target them. All they could do was head for the Carriers themselves, but this had minimal success as most of the Zerg were torn apart by the sheer ferocity of the robotic drones.

The only ones that had luck in avoiding their fates were the Roaches and Infestors due to their ability to burrow and move underground. Fortunately, the vast numbers of Observers in the area were able to spot their positions relatively quickly, and James Raynor's ground warriors were able to hunt them down.

Engagements were not always successful, as many of the Infestors unleashed their fungal growth ability to slow the terrans down, but this immediately attracted the attention of the Protoss Interceptors, quickly tearing the Infestors apart before they had a chance to use their neural parasite tentacles. Other Infestors used their disease spores to quickly weaken the terrans, but as the spores were only meant to weaken and not kill, this fell short of expectations. Most of the Roaches were quickly slaughtered the moment they had unburrowed, and those that were lucky enough to survive were so badly weakened that they were only able to pick off a few of the terrans before they had succumbed to their fire.

Yet despite this, more and more Zerg Infestors were sent into the area. According to Raynor, who had chosen to believe every word of the former Queen of Blades without the slightest thought, these creature were more evolved than the standard Infestors, also possessing a frenzy ability, where their spores target nearby Zerg units and allow them to fight more fanatically for a short period of time.

Of course, this had yet to achieve any major success as of all the ground units, only the Queens and Hydralisks were able to return fire at her Carriers, and the former moved far too slowly with the assistance of the Zerg Creep. On the other hand, the Hydralisks had too thin carapace to survive very long amidst the swarms of Interceptors, although the female executor could see very clearly how effective they were against the terran marines. Their so-called armor proved to be too weak to survive much punishment from the Hydralisks' scythes, and while all of them also have strange looking combat shields equipped to them, this offered virtually no additional protection whatsoever against the Ultralisks.

To that end, it greatly frustrated her that the Carriers were being more and more frequently used to provide cover for the terrans, rather than pushing ahead towards the Overmind. Nevertheless, she concurred with Raynor's logic that they only had one shot to crush the Zerg defenses here, so it had to count. If traditional combat had to be temporarily abandoned in order to defeat the Zerg and liberate Aiur, then that's the way it has to be.

Nevertheless, by providing cover for the terran ground warriors, it also left the Protoss Carriers vulnerable to Zerg Scourge attacks. Although Raynor had provided her Carriers with terran escorts called Wraiths, Selendis had quickly discovered that their Gemini Missiles did not possess the hitting power the Protoss Scouts did with their Anti-Matter Missiles. To compound matters, their armor was much weaker in comparison to the Scouts and Phoenixes, and while this had not been a problem against Scourges as they had to ram into the terran ships for damage, it had left them very vulnerable to the Corruptors. In many cases, the Zerg flyers were able to quickly get within range of the Wraiths and cover them with their corrosive slime, before picking them out of the sky with their parasite spores. Fortunately for the terran ground troops below, the Wraiths still outnumbered the Corruptors in the area, and therefore none of them had chosen to morph into Brood Lords, which would have wreaked even further havoc on them.

Fortunately, it would appear Raynor had anticipated this show of fierce Zerg aerial resistance. As her Carriers pushed forward with the terran ground troops, smaller terran vessels known as Scoutships joined in with them. Somewhat like the Interceptors on the mighty Carriers, Raynor had explained that the Scoutships were usually attached to BattleCruisers and used for reconnaissance, although they could engage in aerial targets in emergency situations.

It didn't take long for Selendis to see why the terrans were so unwilling to use these ships in a combat role. Compared to the individual Interceptors, the Scoutships were barely any more heavily armored in comparison. And unlike robotic drones that were capable of swallowing up the Corruptors in a blanket of destruction, the Scoutships were much less agile and their burst lasers possessed a much slower firing rate. Had it not been for the Protoss Carriers, they would have been shredded by the increasing numbers of Zerg Mutalisks moving into the battlefield.

Nevertheless, the presence of the Scoutships had its impact on the battle. Having rarely seen these terran ships in combat, much of the Scourge legions were diverted away from their objective of attacking the Protoss Carriers to deal with the new threat, and the same had happened with many of the surviving Hydralisks on the ground. This gave the terran marines a considerable advantage. Without the ability to attack ground targets, the Scourges were defenseless as they came under fire from the marines' gauss rifles, and many of them exploded prematurely before they had a chance to reach their target.

Enraged at the success, Zerg Nydus Worms popped from beneath the ground, as Zerg ground creature poured out of its maw and onto the battlefield to attack the marines from the rear. Firebats and Marauders moved quickly to intercept, but the Nydus Worms could pop up anywhere, and usually in places where they least suspected. As a result in many cases, only the Reapers with their back equipped jet packs were able to reach the organisms in time, but even then there was little success as the first Zerg units to emerge were Ultralisks, and most of the Reapers were forced to retreat to avoid getting trampled to death by the Zerg behemoths.

Selendis had ordered some of her Carriers diverted away from engaging the Zerg ground forces to neutralizing the Nydus Worms, and this increased the pressure on the terran troops on the ground. Fortunately for the time being, most of the increasing number of Zerg ground creatures pouring in were only Zerglings, and many of them were cut down by terran fire before they had a chance to tear them apart with their claws. Although they loathed fighting the Zerg creatures hand to hand, some of the Raiders had no choice but to extend their gauss rifles' bayonets as the surviving Zerglings got through the fire and came on top of them.

From her Carrier, Selendis could see that although the marines did not excel in melee combat as the Protoss Zealots have, they nevertheless were proving their worth against the Zerglings. Clearly they were not used to combat of this style, and this would explain the terrans' weakness when dealing with the Zerg up close. Nevertheless, it reminded her of the early training days when Protoss warriors first learned to be Zealots. Such a process took decades, and the female executor could see similar combat characteristics among the terran marines. Perhaps it was that similarity they had shared that made them a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.

* * *

**Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char**

Ulrezaj stood at the entrance of Kerrigan's main hive. Despite the energies of the ancient Xel'Naga artifact that had passed through it, the massive Zerg structure had remained in remarkably good shape. The Queen of Blades had done an excellent job in fortifying her stronghold on Char. Even without the vast numbers of Zerg at her disposal, the hive was clearly designed to withstand significant punishment and still remain functional. This did somewhat surprise him, though. After being the supreme ruler of the Zerg for all these years, the Dark Archon would have thought Kerrigan would see herself without equal to any being in the universe, yet the amount of protection she had given her main hive was clear proof that her arrogance was not boundless as he had believed.

Fortunately, it would appear that most of the protection had been concentrated at the top of the hive. Ulrezaj suspected this must be because Kerrigan believed that should Char ever get invaded and by some miracle the invaders got within range of her hive, it would be subjected to aerial attacks as the Zerg ground forces would have been too numerous for any ground invader to push through. Unfortunately for her, she had not anticipated James Raynor's usage of the Xel'Naga relic and using it to decimate much of her hive cluster's base defenses in one swoop.

Channeling his psionic powers, the Dark Archon unleashed a powerful dark psionic shockwave at the hive entrance. Despite the durability of the structure, it was no match for Ulrezaj's psionic potential. As the dark psionic shockwaves increased in intensity, along with Dark Archon's shadow tendrils lashing at it, the Zerg carapace protecting the structure gradually began to burn away as its armor and flesh were incinerated until it finally gave away, and a hole was burned open into the wall.

Without another thought Ulrezaj stepped through the opening before the hole closed in on itself to correct the structural weakness. With the Tal'darim outside holding off the Zerg creatures, it was time he discovered what secrets Kerrigan had kept within her primary base of operations.

* * *

**Author's Note: All right, so with regards to mentioning Felanis at the beginning of the chapter, I did so because he hadn't been mentioned since chapter 34. But as I stated in the past, there are those that are pushed aside for the moment, but not forgotten. This was exactly the case with Fealnis and the Tal'darim survivors on Aiur.**

**With regards to his concern about the hybrid takeover of them, that was a reference to all the way back in chapter 18, where the hybrid on Aiur (now at the Overmind's corpse site) took control of Tal'darim survivors and used them against General Ridgeway during his mission on Aiur. I'm unsure how many of you remembered that, since it had been a while, so I thought it'd be best to bring it back up.**

**Anyways I hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.**


	45. Chapter 45

**Author's Note: Hey guys, I'm back with a new chapter. After showing off new terran weapons and technology, I felt it was necessary to do the same for the Protoss. Remember, by now the Protoss are no longer so prideful as to believe that nothing can be learned of the terrans, and this chapter will show that some of the new weapons they have are also somewhat based off terran design.**

**To MostazalasLord, all the way back in chapter 24 I had explained about the Protoss Exussumers, but I told you that the specific details about their capabilities wouldn't be known for some time.**

**Well, now you've waited long enough. This chapter will explain all that, and you can see for yourself just how much the Protoss had learned from Jim Raynor's Raider technology after their defeat on Haven.**

**For you who have enjoyed my fic, I would like for you guys to consider looking at another one: "The True Hybrid" by the author MarchenHope.**

**She and I had discussed online about ideas for our fics with each other, and we have worked together quite well to improve each other's fics.**

**Anyways, it's just a suggestion if you guys choose to look.**

**I hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter. Please review and I'll see you next time.**

* * *

Chapter 45

**Bel'Shir**

"You have done well," General Madison said calmly, as another SCV moved a terrazine canister towards the Command Center. "Our mining operation is coming along quite well right now. We have almost 80 canisters of the substance now, and all of them collected without a single shot being fired."

"It's not enough for the emperor, sir," the SCV pilot said in frustration. "As far as he's concerned, we need to get at least another 350 canisters, and I'm not sure how much longer the other personnel in the SCV corps here are going to tolerate it. Hell, I can barely take much more myself!"

"You're not alone in this anxiety," the general replied. "It took us almost 3 hours just to set up the sound amplifier devices and the ghosts into position to open the altars, and that was just getting the mining operation off the ground. Most of my ghosts are exhausted from constantly using their psionic energies to open these altars up, and there's been more and more complaints of wanting replacement ghosts to do the job."

"Will there be any?"

"I'm afraid not. I already spoke to the emperor about this, and he said unless every ghost under my command is in a body bag, I'm just going to have to make do with what I've got. It took me almost two hours of persuasion just to get him to agree to send even the most minimal of reinforcements to help us."

"Is it enough to fight the Protoss if it comes down to that?"

"Of course not. With all that firepower at their disposal, 150 extra marines would be lucky to last even an hour under combat conditions. Hell, they weren't even sent here with excess ammunition, so our munitions levels are still essentially depleted."

The SCV pilot nodded with bitter acceptance. "So you're saying the second the bullets start flying, we've got to get off the moon as fast as we can or we're all going to die."

"I don't like it any more than you do, but there simply isn't any other option in the matter," Madison said, before another voice spoke up.

"General, we may have a problem here," one of the communications officer announced, walking out from the Command Center, per Madison's instructions to keep radio traffic to a minimal.

"I'm all ears. What's going on now?"

"It seems like the Tal'darim patrols in the area are starting to increase. They haven't detected us yet, but we believe they're starting to suspect us."

"Explain yourself, soldier."

"Some of our boys have been picking up on their chattering lately. They had stayed out of sight as you ordered, but some of our specialists who have been able to translate some of the Protoss language have found something startling."

"You just said they haven't detected us, so what's the problem?" Madison asked.

"Some of our specialists have been able to piece together the language translations," the officer explained. "From our analysis it appears the Tal'darim feel something is wrong with their altars, as the amount of terrazine being collected from them is a little bit less than what they had expected."

Madison clenched his fist in frustration. "You happen to know what conclusions they've drawn from that?"

"Just a few, sir. The scanners have indicated the Protoss are making thorough checks to make sure their altars are working properly. Once they do, my bet is they'll conclude either there wasn't as much as much terrazine as they thought there was in the area, or someone is still here stealing it from them."

The general nodded slowly, accepting his predicament. "Then go back to the Command Center and make additional scans. Search for another location on Bel'Shir, preferably close to where we are, that has another high concentration of terrazine altars. We'll have to leave the ones we've been mining from alone for now to keep the Tal'darim guessing."

* * *

**Aiur**

Tabrenus observed the course of the battle from his Phoenix interceptor. Zeratul hadn't been wrong about the terrans and their tenacity. Although fewer in number compared to the legions of Protoss warriors, they were fighting with vigor and courage. Nevertheless, there still existed an element of fear in them, and even the most courageous of their ground warriors was no exception to this.

For the Furinax Tribe leader however, his attention was paid more heavily to expelling the Zerg from Aiur, just as every other Protoss warrior was thinking. Despite many were grateful for the terrans' assistance, most still continued to show their own pride, and believed it was their strength that would finally liberate their homeworld.

This of course wasn't completely unreasonable. After Executor Selendis's defeat on Haven by James Raynor's hands, the Protoss had worked hard to investigate the mechanical hybrid the terrans called the Viking that drove off the Daelaam Protoss forces, and to develop something similar should they come across the battlefield against the terran war machine again.

By this stage, the Furinax Tribe had excelled in the field of weapons development. They had to be, given the aftermath of the Brood War and the conclusion that Protoss and Zerg forces would inevitably meet on the battlefield once again. As such, although much emphasis had been placed on the roles of craftsmen and artisans, more and more Furinax Protoss were sent to the role of weaponsmiths and technologists. Despite the superiority of their technology to the terrans, the Protoss Hierarchy had concluded that the Protoss could learn from the human race, and any and all of their technology that were capable of defeating the Protoss in battle were to be analyzed by the Furinax Tribe, and hopefully reverse engineered and improved upon.

Thus despite the short time that had passed since Executor Selendis's defeat on Haven and the arrival of the Protoss Great Fleet to purge the Zerg from Aiur, the Furinax Tribe had successfully forged two different types of weapons based on the Viking mechanical hybrid: the Exussumer and the Prometheus.

Both of these machines had been based on the Dragoon exoskeleton design, one of the Furinax Tribe's greatest achievements, having greatly assisted the Protoss Templars in battle. Unfortunately, due to the Conclave's ruling, only one massive sacred shrine had been built on Aiur, dedicated to the building and maintenance of these exoskeletons. Many members of the Furinax Tribe had pressed for greater flexibility and construct additional smaller shrines for the same purpose, but the Conclave had overruled it. Thus with the Zerg invasion and the sacred shrine infested, plans for further manufacturing of Dragoons simply fell apart, and forced the Furinax Tribe to turn to the Immortal cybernetic exoskeletons instead.

Yet despite the years spent manufacturing Immortals to bolster the Protoss ranks, the Dragon exoskeleton had never been forgotten. Indeed, one of the goals for the Furinax warriors who were assisting the other Protoss tribes in the recapturing of Aiur was the hope of recovering the ancient Dragoon shrine so that the traditional exoskeletons could be manufactured in the near future if it was viable.

With regards to the Exussumer and the Prometheus, both of them had also incorporated two machines within the Protoss arsenal that were being gradually phased out in preference to superior machines: the Scout and the Reaver. The Scout had been given priority over the Carriers by the Conclave's decree during the Zerg invasion of Aiur when it became clear that the vast numbers of the Zerg swarm proved too much even for the mighty Protoss warriors to handle, and thus numbers had to be bolstered. Due to the shorter time it took to manufacture the superiority fighter, the Scout had been selected to deal with the vast legions of Zerg flyers, and it had been the hope of the Conclave that it would be the mighty fleets of Scouts that would bring about the end of Zerg air superiority over the skies of Aiur. The Protoss tribes had been charged with the task of mass producing the Scouts and the armaments to go along with them, but due to the Conclave's inability to turn away their failing traditions and believing such strategies were winning the war against the Zerg, most of the manufacturing industrial bases had been overrun by the swarm before the Scouts were given the chance to see combat. Although quick thinking by the Khalai warriors had saved most of the armaments and munitions, they were now of no use without the necessary Scout fighters to equip them to.

It was little different with regards to the Reaver. Despite the heavy reliance on war machines to avoid the loss of Protoss life, the weaknesses of the much feared mobile artillery machine had been quickly discovered, and then thoroughly exploited by the Zerg.

Initially the war machine proved to be every bit as effective against the Zerg as it had been against other enemies of the Protoss in the past. But as time went on, the swarm had quickly discovered that as an artillery piece, it was meant to fight from a distance, and would be ineffective if the Zerg creatures came up close to it. Although the Reavers were usually protected by the Protoss warriors, the sheer number of the Zerg forced them to disperse, leaving the Reavers vulnerable. To compound matters, the highly destructive Scarabs manufactured within the Reaver's micro-manufacturing plant could not be launched at the rate necessary when dealing with swarms of Zerg rushing towards it. As the Reavers had extremely low mobility and maneuverability, they were quickly overcome by the Zerg.

Yet as with the Scout, the Conclave continued to believe the Reavers would ensure victory for the Khalai Protoss. As such, orders were issued to step up production of the Reavers, and the Robotics Facilities had even been involved in the mass manufacturing of the Scarab drones as the Conclave felt the Reavers themselves couldn't manufacture them at an adequate rate. This had led to vast amounts of resources had been devoted to a cause that facilitated the Zerg in the chaos they spread across Aiur, yet the Conclave was blind to it.

Nevertheless, the Scarab drones had proven to be extremely effective to the Zerg ground minions, their destructive psionic energy and self-generated electromagnetic fields capable of killing even Ultralisks within moments. Thus in the wake of Selendis's defeat on Haven, the Furinax Tribe had been given the opportunity to find a way to utilize the Scarab drones again, as mass quantities of them remained unused after the fall of Aiur and the vast majority of the Reaver legions were destroyed.

With orders to forge a hybrid machine that would be capable of transforming to achieve both ground and air superiority, the Exussumer had been an attempt by the Furinax Tribe to combine the combat characteristics of the Zealot, Dragoon, Scout, Reaver, and Colossus all into one ultimate fighting machine. While the Zerg swarm took pride in destroying some of the most massive Protoss warships and ground machines, the Exussumer was specifically designed to make them think twice about rushing into battle and challenging it.

From the outset, the Exussumer looked like quadrupedal walker, but that was where the similarities ended. At more than 3800 feet tall, it was more than 15 times the height of the Colossus walker, prior to which was the largest Protoss war machine on the ground. This is considered tall enough to deal with most of the Zerg air threats, as more and more Mutalisks were called away from engaging the Protoss and terran ships to deal with the increasing ground threat as the Protoss and terran warriors pushed towards the Overmind.

Yet any attempt to attack the Exussumer from its underbelly proved to be extremely dangerous. After seeing the destructive power of the Colossus's thermal lances, the Furinax Protoss had installed 18 of them on the Exussumer's underside, with four each on the front and rear, and five each on the left and right sides. Due to its extreme height, even most of the Zerg flyers ended up flying beneath its underside, where many of the Corruptors, Brood Lords, and Overseers were incinerated by them. The ground minions fared no better, as the Exussumer proved to be too massive and therefore with every step taken, it was easily able to catch up with the ground based Zerg and get them within sight of the thermal lances.

Yet in keeping up with traditions in regards to the Dragoon exoskeleton, a massive phase disruptor cannon was mounted on the top of the Exussumer, and also fired antimatter bolts sheathed in psychically charged fields. Yet given that the cannon size was larger than a Colossus itself, its power proved much more deadly. For the ground based Zerg unfortunate enough to be on the high grounds and within reach of phase disruptor cannon, its destructive energy proved more than enough to vaporize even the mighty Brutalisks and Omegalisks with just a single fully charged shot, although this is usually not done because of the slower firing rate as a result of fully charging the cannon in such a matter.

Despite this formidable array, the Furinax Protoss were not blind to numerical superiority of the Zerg, nor was the factor of mass numbers of Zerg air attacks overlooked. To that end, the Exussumer also had three massive munitions batteries built onto its left, right, and top sides. Each battery comprised of hundreds of firing ports, and this was where the extreme excess of anti-matter missiles and Reaver Scarabs had been put to use after the fall of Aiur.

Due to its massive size, even the giant Brtualisks and Omegalisks the Zerg possessed would look tiny in comparison, and it left the Furinax Tribe with no doubt that once deployed on the battlefield, these Zerg creatures would find a way to provide cover for the less durable ground minions against the Exussumer's thermal lances on its underside. This would allow the Zerglings, Hydralisks, Queens, Lurkers, and Roaches to get within range of the massive golden legs of the Protoss war machine and attempt to bring it to the ground. Thus the munitions batteries had been built to launch a Scarab shower, where a multitude of the Reaver Scarabs would be launched from all three batteries and a multitude of the highly explosive drones would be fired into the air and land all around the Exussumer at a rather large radius, detonating within seconds. Yet similarly, due to the Scarab's large blast radius, the Furinax Tribe had redesigned the drones to have more advanced artificial intelligence upon detonation so that it would not injure allied forces within its radius, something the individual members had quickly picked up on upon encountering James Raynor's Siege Tanks in action on Haven against Selendis's forces.

To counter the Zerg air threat, the munitions batteries had also been equipped with anti-matter missiles. Unlike in the case with the Reaver Scarabs, the anti-matter missiles could be fired from each battery as well as all three batteries simultaneously. Due to its high accuracy against almost all aerial targets, a full volley of them numbering in the hundreds was capable of ripping Brood Lords out of the sky with ease.

Yet due to the weakness of the Scarab shower as the explosive drones could not lock on to enemy targets, the Furinax Tribe had somewhat redesigned the anti-matter missiles. On the Scout, they had been designed only for air-to-air combat, but here on the Exussumer they were capable of both air and ground targets. Their destructive capabilities had already been shown for such a role, as entire legions of Zerg ground creatures had simply been blow apart by volleys from just one of the batteries firing the warheads at ground targets.

Despite such destructive firepower, the Furinax Tribe had quickly seen a glaring flaw in James Raynor's arsenal with regards to what they call the Thor walker. At a massive size by terran standards, it was extremely slow and thus vulnerable to flanking attacks. As the Exussumer was the most massive walker now in the Protoss arsenal, logic would dictate that Zerg forces would attempt to encircle it and attack it from all directions regardless of its firepower.

Thus the Exussumer was outfitted with similar armor that had been forged onto the Dragoon, and later the Immortal. This not only gave the massive cybernetic walker incredible speed and agility, but it allowed its four massive legs to be used as a weapon as well, crushing Zerg creatures beneath it.

From this point on, it was where the lessons learned from the terran machine known as the Viking began to show. Like the mechanical hybrid, the Exussumer too had an alternative form. Out on the battlefield, it had proven itself to be far more deadly. Despite the success of the Immortal and Stalker, the Khalai and Nerazim tribes still prided themselves in their warriors and saw both war machines as an extension of them, their bodies having been too crippled to fight on and thus an alternative body was needed. As such, the Furinax Tribe had decided that the Exussumer's alternative form would change from the massive quadrupedal walker into a bipedal cybernetic Protoss warrior, its twin forward legs would rise up along with the forward half of the entire walker, allowing the rear two legs to become the legs while the front two become arms, as the Exussumer would be able to stand upright, and a cybernetic head would shift into position, completing its transformation into the warrior bipedal form. As per usual of Protoss traditions, the cybernetic heads of the Exussumers were that of the most honored Protoss: Khas, Adun, and Tassadar.

Now at slightly over 6000 feet tall, the Exussumer had demonstrated extraordinary combat potential. In this form, the 18 thermal lance firing ports were rotated onto the Exussumer's back, yet were still positioned in such a way so that they could provide protective fire to the left, right and top flanks of the massive walker, as well as any Zerg fortunate enough to sneak in right under it and fire from below, and this has provided great flank protection to both terran and Protoss forces on the battlefield, having been deployed in every sector.

The three munitions ports were now rotated into position where they were now on top of the shoulder, and behind the right and left arm elbows. As in the case with the quadrupedal mode, the Exussumer retained the ability to fire off masses of anti-missile barrages from these batteries at air and ground based Zerg alike, and as they are now being fired from a greater height, it increased the chances of them being used to neutralize Zerg air support against the quadrupedal Exussumers that the Zerg focused much of their flyers upon.

Lessons had also been taken from the Tal'darim, in accordance to James Raynor's encounter with them. According to the terran, in one of their missions to retrieve a fragment of the ancient Xel'Naga artifact, they had come across the Tal'darim world of Monlyth. The Tal'darim had weaponized some of the massive Stone Guardian statues surrounding the relic, and upon approaching the fragment, the statues came to life and attacked them with their thermal eye beams. Though the Colossus had a similar weapon, the ones the Tal'darim had forged onto the statues were also capable of firing at aerial targets.

Thus the same had been incorporated into the Exussumer in its bipedal mode. As the Exussumer head was almost the size of the Colossus in itself, the thermal eye beams built into it were of a far more destructive power, which had been shown on the battlefield to be capable of turning the massive Zerg Ultralisks into total ash within seconds upon contact.

Unlike its quadrupedal counterpart, the bipedal Exussumer had a number of new weaponry into its arsenal. They had been incorporated to deal with the multiple problems of Zerg swarm rushes onto itself, as well as a faster way to thin out the Zerg numbers in a fashion that the Zerg would never be able to recover in time.

To that end, the frontal legs of the Exussumer, now as arms in its bipedal mode, had been designed to rival the similarities as the Colossus walker. Its tips would open up like a claw, revealing the firing opening of massive cannons. From both the left and right arms, these cannons were capable of firing a massive thermal beam of such intensity that only the most heavily armored carapace Zerg structures such as Hatcheries, Lairs, and Hives were capable of surviving upon contact, but would quickly be reduced to dust in only a matter of seconds. To compound that firepower, the Furinax Tribe had perfected a massive version of the Scout's anti-matter missile, also capable of being fired through the massive port. Though not as powerful as the thermal beam, its battlefield debut had proved its worth, as it had proven capable of turning the massive Zerg Spore Cannons and Virophages to a pile of blood and guts with a single hit.

To deal with the mass swarms of Zergling and Baneling attacks that had caused immense problems on the terran warriors, as they were not trained as the Protoss Zealots were in the art of the melee combat, the Furinax Tribe had built firing ports on the shoulders the Exussumers. Upon activation, the hatches covering them would open up, and massive psionically powered energy projectiles, though not anywhere near as the massive anti-matter missiles fired from the Exussumer arms, were fired from it. With their advanced targeting and tracking systems, as per all Protoss weaponry, they were easily capable of tracking the Zerg hordes. Yet unlike standard projectiles, they do not travel towards the Zerg creatures. Rather, they fly to close the range until they are directly on top of the veil Zerg. Once that happens, the projectiles break open, and dozens of explosive Reaver Scarab drones rain down and scatter around them. Given the drones' massive blast radius, battlefield experience has shown that only the most massive creatures such as the Brutalisk and Omegalisk have a chance of surviving.

Thus in dealing with these Zerg creatures, the Furinax Tribe had turned to yet another one of James Raynor's arsenal weapons: the Banshee. The Observer recordings had shown that the terran spacecraft had incredible firepower when deployed against the Zerg defenses on Char, though they proved somewhat ineffective when operating alone in targeting the Queen of Blades. Upon comparison with the anti-matter missiles of the Scout, it had been concluded that the backlash rockets of the terran Banshee had proved to be on par with the Protoss counterpart, and in some areas even surpassing it slightly.

As a result of this observance and seeing the Banshee rocket fire's advanced tracking ability, the Exussumer had been fitted with void missiles, somewhat based on the backlash rocket design. The void missiles however, were much bigger in comparison. While smaller that the massive anti-matter missile fired from its arms, they could be fired in greater numbers. These had been located in the wrist part of the Exussumer's arms, and the Furinax Tribe had deemed it necessary as in the event of firing the massive thermal beam from one of its arms, the Exussumer was unable to do anything else with it until the energy beam had been fully discharged. Thus a common tactic as seen on the battlefield was to have one of its arms fire the massive thermal beam, while the other ejects the void missiles from its wrist firing ports of the other arm. As the void missiles also had advanced targeting and were capable of scattering to multiple targets in the event the Zerg attack from different directions, this allowed for even greater flank protection against the Exussumer.

Yet without doubt the most powerful armament the Exussumer possessed did not come from its arms, shoulders, or head, but rather from the chest. Obsessed with the Mothership's planet cracker ability and its destructive power, the Furinax Tribe had worked hard to find a way to harness the raw energy in a similar way of the large Khaydarin Crystal built into the Exussumer's chest, the very source of its power. While armor covering had been built over it to protect it, the Protoss weaponsmiths soon realized that by focusing all of the weapon systems' power to the core, it could unleash a massive psionically powered energy beam of pure unbridled fury, and that was exactly what had been built into the massive cybernetic walker. While this temporarily left the Exussumer vulnerable for a few seconds for all of its other systems to return back online, the battlefield results had clearly justified its usage, as even the massive Zerg hives unfortunate enough to come across the full fury of the Exussumer were almost instantly vaporized. In fact, to determine the true extent of the energy beam's power, during the test trials on Shakuras it had been test fired on the golden Carriers of the Protoss Great Fleet, and even the massive Protoss ships could not withstand a sustained energy blast like that for very long.

With such immense weaponry equipped to the Exussumer, the Furinax weaponsmiths took measure to forge an internal manufacturing plant within its main body, although far more massive in scale in comparison to the once feared Reaver. With such an arsenal at its disposal, the Furinax Tribe had no doubt that the Exussumer would strike terror into the heart of all enemies who dare to oppose the Protoss.

Yet to keep up with the requests from the individual Templar Castes, all of which still prided themselves in the fighting spirit of the Protoss warrior, the Furinax Tribe also took measures into giving the massive Exussumer fighting ability while in its bipedal mode. Given its speed in its quadrupedal mode, the Protoss weaponsmiths look at yet another weapon within James Raynor's arsenal: the Reaper.

While extremely tiny in comparison to the mighty Protoss Colossus, the terran warrior nevertheless possessed the ability to traverse difficult terrain due to the strange engine packs mounted on their backs. This gave the Reaper much faster movement, something that the Daelaam Protoss have achieved only via the psionic charge ability to rapidly close in on their adversaries.

Yet interestingly enough, it would appear both the terrans and Protoss have had similar thinking along the lines of utilizing such a speed advantage. The S.E.T.H. warbots, as the terrans called them, had such engines equipped to their backs, and the Exussumer possessed thrusters of similar performance that had been equipped to the back of its legs while in bipedal mode. This had been done when it was quickly discovered that its bipedal mode was slower in comparison to its quadrupedal mode, and the time it takes to switch between the modes could spell the difference between victory and defeat.

Thus with the addition of the thrusters on the rear of its legs, it had allowed the Exussumer to move even faster than when it's in its quadrupedal mode, though only for a short period of time so as to prevent the thrusters from overheating. With this addition, it allowed the Exussumer to act in a similar way as the Protoss Zealot warriors, using their psionic charge ability to rapidly close in towards their enemies. Although the massive war machine was not equipped with psionic blades that the Zealots possess, at such a huge size none of the Furinax weaponsmiths saw any need for it.

The Prometheus on the other hand was the second Protoss war machine that the Furinax Tribe had forged based off the Viking mechanical hybrid within James Raynor's arsenal. Despite the success of the Exussumer due to its massive size and immense firepower, there had remained one serious weakness within the cybernetic walker that had not been incorporated after analysis of the Viking: the flight factor.

Although at some 6000 feet in its bipedal mode made the Exussumer capable of hitting almost every possible Zerg air target on the battlefield, it did not change the fact that the Mutalisks, Scourge, Corruptors and Brood Lords could simply fly over the massive walker and attack it from an even higher elevation, while Overlords with their Ventral Sacs could drop mass swarms of Zerglings right onto the Exussumer itself. For that reason, plans were drawn up to forge a second design based off of the Viking, and thus the Prometheus was born.

Unlike the Exussumer, which dwarfed just about everything on the battlefield, save the terran BattleCruisers and the Protoss Carriers and Motherships, the Prometheus was much smaller in comparison, but still considered massive by terran standards and bolstering just as impressive of an arsenal as the Exussumer walker. On the ground, the only terran war machine that seemed to rival its size is a massive version of the Thor walker that the terran dubbed the Odin, though the Prometheus was still somewhat larger than it by comparison.

Also based on the Dragoon exoskeleton design, the Prometheus possessed flight capabilities, something that the Exusssumer did not. To that end, the Furinax Tribe had specifically designed that its two frontal arms to be much more massive compared to its two rear legs, though all four limbs were able to neatly fold into the cybernetic main body, allowing the Prometheus to take flight.

At such a massive size, the Prometheus was less maneuverable in comparison to the sleek Phoenix interceptor, but this was more than made it for its thick armor and its array of weapons. Somewhat like the robotic Sentry, the Protoss technologists had built a massive cybernetic head on top of the forward section of its body, while like the Exussumer, the body itself had an internal manufacturing plant for its wide array of deadly weaponry.

Unlike the Sentry or Colossus, the Prometheus's head served more than just the war machine's artificial intelligence command and targeting system. With the Colossi's thermal beam proven to be effective to virtually all Zerg ground foes alike, it was decided to incorporate that into the giant blue eye of the Prometheus head that also served as its sighting mechanism. While not as powerful as the arm thermal beam fired by the Exussumer, it had proven its worth in battle when firing at the Zerg ground targets, killing Butalisks and Omegalisks with a single concentrated shot and decimating the Zerg Spine Crawlers to facilitate in the terran and Protoss warriors' advance forwards.

Yet due to it being such a massive target, the Protoss knew this meant it would be subjected to masses of Scourge attacks as they were so effective at both terran and Protoss capital ships. To prevent such a fine war machine from being brought down so easily by the small veil Zerg flyers, the Furinax Tribe turned to one of the designed forged by their Nerazim brethren: the Stalker.

Similar to the Khalai Dragoon, the Stalker had the shadow essence of a Dark Templar fused into its body. However, its particle disruptor armament did not require such an essence, but rather to control and fire it. As the Stalkers had proven themselves on the battlefield time and again during the reclamation of Aiur, it was decided to incorporate the particle disruptors onto the Prometheus. At such a massive size in comparison to the Stalker, far greater numbers of particle disruptors were fitted onto the sides of the Prometheus head. With a much greater power source compared to the Nerazim cybernetic war machine, it also allowed the particle disruptors to fire in much more rapid succession, and this had been proven on the battlefield, their deadly trajectories tearing about legions of Zerg Scourges before they had a chance to ram into Prometheus' armored hulls.

The Zerg were no fools in adapting to different combat scenarios. When it had been quickly seen by the Overlords and Overseers that the mass Scourges failed to deal with the new Protoss war machines, Corruptor breeding increased from the individual Zerg lairs and hives, and much of the ones in the air were diverted to deal with the new Protoss threat. Unlike the Scourge, the squid-like Corruptor was much more durable and frequently called upon to deal with the most massive of terran and Protoss ships, such as BattleCruisers and Carriers, and it was upon their legions that the Zerg intended to turn the tide against the Prometheus flyers.

This had been exactly the reason why the frontal arms of the Prometheus had been designed to be of such massive size. Inspired by the munitions batteries that had been forged onto the Exusssumer with great effort, so too had they been done onto the Prometheus's frontal arms. Despite in flight mode and its arms folded away, the locations of hatches that cover the firing ports located on the frontal arms remained in plain sight, and at any sign of masses of Zerg flyers moving into position to intercept them, they would open up and dozens of anti-matter missiles would be unleashed from them, screeching towards the Zerg flyers. As the Observer reports have clearly proven, the mass number of such trajectories had make the Corruptors' task extremely difficult, and while such volleys were not as powerful in comparison to the ones fired by the Exussumers, they nevertheless weakened the Corruptors significantly, and those lucky enough to survive and get within parasite spore firing range were usually shot out of the sky by the Phoenix interceptors with ease. In many cases, the Prometheus cybernetic hybrids were able to fly at a lower altitude, their volleys of anti-matter missiles providing covering fire to the ground warriors below, as Zerglings and Hydralisks were blow apart by their destructive power.

Yet the Zerg continued to feed their swarms of Mutalisks towards the Prometheus flyers. It did not take long before it was realized that unlike the volleys fired by the Exussumer, the ones from the Prometheus were only able to target foes directly in front of it or slightly to its sides. Thus the Zerg changed their strategy at times: using the Corruptors to force the Prometheus to use its anti-matter missile volley, while the Mutalisks sneak up on its sides and attack it from its vulnerable flanks.

Fortunately, the Furinax Protoss had already come up with a solution to this. Inspired by the psionic energy projectiles fired by the Exussumer and the deadly Reaver Scarabs they carry, the Prometheus also carried just that within its massive cybernetic head. Although a volley shot from it fired only two psionic projectiles, they were capable of tracking Zerg flyers and then breaking open to reveal the anti-matter missiles stored within, which then immediately launch themselves at their targets. This had already been demonstrated on Mutalisks moving from the flanks to attack the Prometheus flyers from the more vulnerable sides, and the Observer recordings had shown hundreds of Mutalisks having their wings torn off and blown out of the sky by these energy projectile attacks.

With these weapons more than sufficient to deal with the Zerg air attacks, the numbers of Prometheus war machines that were not necessary had their attention diverted to the ground, where the still relentless Zerg ground attacks continued to take its toll on the terran ground warriors.

Unlike the Exussumer, the Prometheus's air to ground transformation was relatively simple, as all that was necessary was to extend its two massive frontal arms and its two smaller cybernetic legs. At this point the Prometheus walkers move very similarly to the Dragoon exoskeleton, thus a proud reminder of what the Furinax Tribe had achieved during the golden days of Protoss civilization. Yet its arsenal from its aerial mode was mostly retained, as the massive cybernetic head retained its rapid firing particle disruptor attack to deal with the mass swarms of Zerglings and Devouring Ones, the firing ports on the two massive frontal arms were able to fire their volley of anti-matter missiles towards incoming Roaches, Hydralisks, and Infestors, while the giant blue eye and its thermal beam fired from it remained as potent as ever, easily able to burn Zerg Ultralisks to ashes with its concentrated fire.

However, in its ground position it shared the same weakness as its aerial position in its vulnerability to flanking attacks, and during the initial Observer reports, the Zerg had used mass swarms of Zerglings to rush towards it to keep the Prometheus occupied, while other Zerglings enter a chrysalis phase and become the much feared Banelings, their volatile acid burst already taken a toll on both the terrans and Protoss.

Yet as in the case with its aerial mode, the Furinax technologists weren't blind to this weakness. Similar to the Exussumer, the Prometheus walkers' cybernetic heads also had a built in Scarab scatter shower ability built on their tops, to which the hatch would open and dozens of explosive psionically powered explosive drones would be launched out and scattered around the massive robotic walker. As the battle reports had shown, this had proven to be an effective the suicide Zerg units, as the Banelings did not possess the ability to move while burrowed, and many were caught within the Scarab blast radius before they had the chance to get within range of the Protoss walker.

Yet one of the most interesting aspects of the Prometheus was that its most powerful attack was derived from the psionic energies wielded by the Protoss High Templar warriors. Many of them forgo the traditional forms of combat so as to better perfect their psionic powers into weapons through the Khala, and thus was the reason why all High Templar wear Khaydarin Amulets to improve their Khala connection. Yet some of the strongest High Templar could use their psionic powers by casting psionic discharges, and this could be fired at the enemy as an energy projectile. Such a High Templar ability had little cost in psionic energy and thus was greatly valued on the battlefield, but the fact remained that very few High Templar warriors were able to reach such a level of expertise in their psionic powers and thus could not support their fellow brethren as effectively.

The Furinax Tribe sought to correct this matter by forging a weapon of similar ability on the Prometheus. By evaluating the High Templar and their psionic discharge ability, along with the thermal lances of the Colossus, the Furinax Protoss succeeded in incorporating a psionic particle lance into the Prometheus walkers. This had been the primary reason why the frontal arms of the cybernetic machine had been designed to be so much more massive in comparison to the rear back legs: psionic energy gathering and focusing.

In a similar effect to the highly valued High Templars and their ability to use psionic discharges by placing their arms in front of their body, the Prometheus does so similarly, although in the latter's case the massive cybernetic arms detach. Like the High Templar, once position they focused a psionic energy field between them, before letting loose a devastating energy discharge from it. Such an attack takes time to prepare however, and during the time lapse when the Prometheus charged up, it was vulnerable to Zerg attacks, something the veil creatures were quickly able to take note and exploit to their full potential. Fortunately, all of the Prometheus walkers were escorted by Zealot warriors, and their psionic blades made quick work of the swarms of Zerglings charging forward to attack the Prometheus before its particle lance could be discharged. The energy blast had been rapidly justified under the current battlefield conditions. While less powerful in comparison to the Exussumer's arm thermal beam, the psionic particle discharge from the Prometheus proved to be lethal to everything on the battlefield, instantly blowing apart Zerg Spine Crawlers with ease, and permanently toppling Brutalisks and Omegalisks in their wake.

Yet the detachment of the cybernetic arms had inspired the Furinax Tribe to use the Prometheus in a melee warrior role on the battlefield as well, in particular to assisting the more massive Zerg creatures such as the Ultralisk. Despite their massive size, they were still easier to breed on the battlefield in comparison to replenishing the numbers of Zealot warriors. As such some of the Prometheus walkers detached their mechanical arms not for the sake of using the psionic particle energy blast as the Zerg creatures had anticipated, but rather as a way to pin the Zerg creature down and prevent it from burrowing. Once left immobile, the Zealots would quickly rush in and tear the creature apart with their psionic blades, though as shown by the Observer reports, this was not always successful as the creature was too massive and its carapace too thick to be penetrated by the average Zealot, and the mass numbers of Queens and Roaches on the battlefield prevented too many Zealots from having their focus diverted away to deal with the Ultralisks.

Yet nevertheless, Tabrenus knew that the Furinax Tribe had made an excellent contribution to the war effort with regards to confrontation with the Zerg swarm. As the Prometheus and Exussumer walkers were fully robotic, they could be built at a faster rate in comparison to training the Protoss warriors, and it would further reduce the loss of Protoss life. His tribe's forgings had rapidly earned the respect of the terran warriors as well, as the transmissions coming in from the terran forces on the ground had all marveled at the ingenuity of the Protoss, some of them going as far as believing a single Exussumer walker possessed more firepower than the whole of James Raynor's forces just prior to the Zerg invasion.

Like Zekrath and his Shelak Tribe in conducting trials with the Purifiers, Soul Hunters, and Vindicators, the Furinax leader was doing a similar course of action with the Exussumer and Prometheus walkers. Though still relatively few in number, they were nevertheless proving their worth at decimating the Zerg swarm, and Tabrenus hoped that once the Zerg forces on Aiur were completely eradicated, Hierarch Artanis would allow him to proceed with the production of these mighty war machines to usher in a new era of the Protoss Templar.

For now however, the concentration remained with reaching the Overmind's husk. As the cybernetic walkers were still very tiny in comparison to the Zerg Leviathans, Tebrenus hoped the mighty vessel the Daelaam Protoss had forged would arrive to deal with them soon. Once the Leviathan threat is removed, his cybernetic walkers should have no problem in annihilating all of the remaining Zerg forces on Aiur.


	46. Chapter 46

**Author's Note: Hey guys, it's time for another chapter. This one will show off parts of foreshadowing of events to come, which will be revealed later in the future. You'll see what I mean.**

**For you who have enjoyed my fic, I would like for you guys to consider looking at another one: "The True Hybrid" by the author MarchenHope.**

**She and I had discussed online about ideas for our fics with each other, and we have worked together quite well to improve each other's fics.**

**Anyways, it's just a suggestion if you guys choose to look.**

* * *

Chapter 46

**Reserve Sector, Aiur**

Nahaan observed the battle from a distance from his Scout superiority fighter, absolutely livid. Despite the satisfaction that once the last Zerg bastion falls, Aiur would be liberated, Artanis had denied him the opportunity to participate in the battle itself. Instead of fighting along with his Khalai brethren and pushing towards the Overmind, he had been ordered to remain behind and act as a reserve.

To the Ara leader, this was a total insult to his title. Like many of his Ara brethren, Nahaan was not ready to accept the Hierarchy as the ruling body of the Daelaam Protoss. As the meeting on Shakuras with the terran Rosemary Dahl had proven, the entire Hierarchy system was far too slow, fractious, and inefficient. The similar meeting with James Raynor and bringing the wretched Queen of Blades onto the sacred soil of Aiur had resulted similarly. Yet other than himself, all of the other Hierarchy Protoss had agreed to compromise and simply monitor Kerrigan, rather than executing her on the spot as she should have been, while accusing him and his Ara Tribe of being completely blind to reason.

This was no surprise to him. Nahaan usually did not spend time on Shakuras, preferring other Protoss colony worlds instead as the Nerazim homeworld only reminded him of the fall of Aiur and the treachery of his fellow Khalai brethren. It would seem as they had completely forgotten about the Discord and the Dark Templar refusal to embrace the Khala, something that Khas had brought to unite all of the Protoss tribes under. They had lacked discipline without the light of the Khala and their psionic storm abilities were a danger to all Protoss. It was for this reason that the Conclave had banished them from Aiur.

Despite the fact that the Nerazim tribes were not as unforgiving as the Conclave, the fact remained that the other Khalai tribes were beginning to accept the unification with their Dark Templar brethren. Yet even to this day, the tensions between the sects remain. It was clear to the Ara leader that the Daelaam Protoss would inevitably fracture and splinter apart, as the Khalai and Nerazim tribes simply could not coexist in peace.

Despite the four years the Khalai refugees had spent on Shakuras, Nahaan had seen many cases where they had once more tried to persuade the Dark Templar to embrace the Khala. This had done nothing more than lead to assassination attempts by the Nerazim. Only a select few were willing to turn their sights towards the Khala, but even then they were unwilling to discard the twilight of the Void that had provided them with their own source of psionic energy, and far more powerful in comparison to the Khala's embrace, according to their claims.

Similarly, very few of the Khalai refugees were willing to embrace of the coldness of the Void, and they believed that if their primal link to the Khala was severed, they would succumb to total madness. The Tal'darim refugees that had reached Shakuras a year ago had confirmed this, their minds altered by the Sundrop drug and cut off from the Khala's light. It had left them constantly addicted to the substance, and angry, distressed, and fearful to Khalai and Nerazim Protoss alike. It was only after their link to the Khala had been restored that they were able to regain their rationale, and this only provided further confirmation to Nahaan that the Void powers the Dark Templar tribes embrace were corruptive and harmful, and had made great efforts to appeal to the Hierarchy for increased efforts for the Nerazim clans to abandon the Void.

The fact that he could only make appeals to the Hierarchy had greatly infuriated him. While his Ara Tribe was relatively young by Protoss standards, it was this tribe that had rallied to Khas's cause and his vision of the Khala to unify the Protoss. They were his closest allies during the Aeon of Strife, and it was for that reason that when the Judicator Assembly had been created out of the Judicator Caste, the Ara Tribe came to dominate it and thus the Conclave ruling body, which had governed the Khalai Protoss society for some 3000 years before the war with the Zerg swarm had entered the fray.

As such, the Protoss within the Ara Tribe were used to having the role of leaders, believing their wisdom and Khala knowledge would give them the will to govern the Protoss society for all time. This however had backfired on them during the Zerg invasion of Aiur, and Conclave was grudgingly forced to admit that the Void energies of the Dark Templar were required to defeat the Zerg swarm. With the Conclave now dissolved, the Ara Protoss were forced to realize that their leadership position as the supreme Protoss ruling body had been lost, but many were still unwilling to acknowledge such a thing, and were still infuriated by the fact that they now had to take orders from the Hierarchy, rather than making the laws for themselves.

Indeed, despite that numerous Ara Protoss had been sent into the battlefield to reinforce the positions of the attacking Protoss warriors, the majority of the tribe had remained behind in reserve. To Nahaan, it would seem that the mighty Ara Tribe had been reduced to the status of the Velari Tribe. During the Zerg invasion, the Velari Tribe was the Templar reserves, and they had been mobilized to repel the Zerg, albeit unsuccessful. The Ara Protoss found it insulting that they now had to perform a similar task, but upon raising the matter with Artanis, Nahaan was told that the Ara Tribe had to realize that it was no longer the supreme ruling caste of the Protoss. As such, tasks that they had ordered the Templar and Khalai Caste to perform but would not even think of doing themselves were no longer an option anymore.

Yet Nahaan felt otherwise with regards to the Ara Protoss' wisdom. After all, they had sided with Aldaris on Shakuras after the Queen of Blades had corrupted Raszagal, yet the Nerazim tribes were blind to it, as were many of the Khalai refugees. There were very few among the former Judicator tribe who believed Kerrigan was now a different person, and most blamed the Protoss Hierarchy for being too trusting. Although Urun and Mohandar both insisted that the veil creature be watched over should there be any signs of abnormal behavior, the fact remained that Artanis and Zeratul's combined efforts had convinced them to stay their wrath. Vartanil had proved the worst of them all, as he had seemed willing to forgive the Queen of Blades for all the suffering she had caused to the Protoss.

However, to assault the Queen of Blades would mean having to get past the obstacle of James Raynor. Despite the terran's mind had most likely been corrupted, the fact remained that his actions on Char had sent the Zerg into disarray, thus weakening their hold on Aiur. Like Urun, Nahaan had also wanted their homeworld reclaimed, and James Raynor's actions had given the Daelaam Protoss that opportunity. For that reason, the Ara leader simply could not move against him. The most that could be done now was to send word to other Protoss brethren in the hopes that they would be swayed by Nahaan that Kerrigan was too dangerous and deceptive to be trusted to be allowed to live, but this had been met with little success.

Despite the feeling of abandonment on Aiur so long ago, both the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss tribes still respected the Xel'Naga. As such, the ancient Xel'Naga prophecy Zeratul had discovered on Ulaan could not be discarded as utter rubbish. Artanis had convinced the tribes that as his mentor, Tassadar could not be so easily corrupted by the Overmind, and its secrets must be uncovered as to shed more light on the prophecy.

The only comforting factor to Nahaan was that despite the fact that Kerrigan was allowed to live due to the impending threat of the prophecy, there were very few Protoss that were willing to consider forgiving her for the atrocities she had committed during her time with the Zerg. As such, most had agreed with his assessment that once the Queen of Blades had served her purpose, she would be executed immediately.

Yet even this was something James Raynor had intended to thwart. It was clear the terran's feelings would never fade for the wretched creature. Nahaan could see it in his eyes. If the Protoss tried to execute the Queen of Blades, he would be there to defend her. He would defy their very alliance just to save the life of a monster that was a threat to all creation. Artanis had insisted that James Raynor was a rational person, yet his feelings towards Kerrigan seemed to prove otherwise from Nahaan's point of view. Thus despite having been told that Raynor vowed to kill Kerrigan after the death of Praetor Fenix, Nahaan was skeptical that the terran would have actually had it within him to carry out such a duty, especially now that he deems that she was no longer a threat as the Zerg influence within her had been purged. To make matters worse, as Kerrigan had not shown any signs of treachery, deceit, or hostility ever since her arrival on Aiur, rumors were spreading that some of the Protoss were beginning to reconsider their views on her and despite their resolve to see her killed as soon as she was of no more use to them, there were signs that the resolves were starting to weaken.

Nahaan would have none of it. He refused to believe his Khalai brethren would eventually forgive Kerrigan for all the sins she had committed. Fortunately, there was one advantage to be held in the reserve while the Daelaam Protoss pressed forward with the terrans and pushed the Zerg forces back. Almost all of the concentration was on the battlefield there, and there were few Observers where his Ara Tribe was as they were needed to provide tactical data to the warriors. This had allowed him to send word to the Protoss survivors on Aiur with little difficulty in keeping it secret from the rest of the Hierarchy.

He had especially wanted to establish contact with the Tal'darim survivors. Despite their hatred for the Khalai Protoss for abandoning them on Aiur, Artanis and Zeratul were able to establish a cease fire with them so that the Daelaam Protoss could focus all their energies in scouring the Zerg from their world. Nahaan hoped to speak with Felanis, who was gathering the Tal'darim all over Aiur and persuading them to come to the Daelaam Protoss so that they could have their link to the Khala restored.

As such, it meant that as of right now, the Tal'darim survivors were still corrupted by the Sundrop substance and thus easier to manipulate. Since they had suffered greatly at the hands of the Zerg, the Ara leader knew there would be little difficulty in getting out their hatred for Kerrigan. If they could be persuaded to join his cause in seeking justice, then there would be little chance that the wretched Queen of Blades would be able to survive once she had done her part.

Although it was necessary for their connection to the Khala restored, Nahaan had been informed that the Tal'darim that had made it to Shakuras took time to be restored to their former selves, and it would be during that time window that he would contact them. They would then be integrated to his Ara Tribe, and together they would bring swift justice to the Protoss by seeing that Kerrigan shall never rise to threaten them ever again.

* * *

**Agria**

"So just to clarify, even though Agria is back in your hands again, you have no intention of becoming a Dominion colony again?" Kate Lockwell asked Agrian colonist Dr. Maxwell.

"Of course not," the scientist replied into her microphone. "Before the Zerg invasion, Agria was one of the Dominion's principal botanical and wildlife preserves. The whole planet is just a small farming colony, and when the Zerg arrived, the Dominion did nothing to help us. If it weren't for Jim Raynor and his Raiders, we would have all perished. How would you feel about being part of a government who promises to protect you against outside invaders, then immediately abandons you to your fate when they come?"

"I'd be very upset," Kate admitted. "But I would like to know: with the Zerg invasion now stopped, did the Dominion help you in reclaiming Agria?"

"That was also by Raynor and his boys. The whole planet is only a shadow of its former self, but lucky for us the main power grids were only damaged by the Zerg invasion, and not destroyed like on some of the other planets. Raynor helped clear the Zerg off this world, and some of his engineers helped restore the power grid to a reasonable order. It's not as much as we had hoped for, but it provides the bare bones of living and resettlement. It'll take us years to rebuild the colony back to its former self, but it'll be worth it in the end."

"Thank you for that," Kate stated. "Another question: where is your leader Dr. Ariel Hanson? UNN knows that she had been evacuated from Agria just as most of the colonists were, yet she did not appear to come back with you."

"She chose to stay with Raynor and his Raiders. Dr. Hanson saw that Jim Raynor had every intention of restoring freedom to the sector and wanted to be part of that cause. I'm sure she's doing just fine with him right now," Maxwell stated.

"So there you have it," Kate announced. "Despite the halting of the Zerg invasion, the Dominion has done nothing to help the mass numbers of refugees who were force to leave their fringe worlds behind. Instead, they had turned to James Raynor for assistance in the hopes that they could return home. There is now no doubt that the rebel's actions may have had noble purposes to them after all. For UNN, this is Kate Lockwell."

The cameras dimmed and Kate moved away from the camera man, mentioning Dr. Maxwell to follow suit. Despite the successful interview, the anchorwoman was clearly not satisfied. She had wanted major stories from the big players, not the leftover scraps. Ever since Prince Valerian's broadcasts and the footage of the Char invasion had landed in her possession, she had become obsessed with trying to get more of the story on the matter. Unfortunately, despite numerous interviews with the prince, his statements had remained exactly the same: the victory on Char had been by Jim Raynor's hands. She had pressed harder to see if there was more, but the prince had explained that he did not ask the rebel leader about his motives or intentions.

It was clear that the only way she could get more of the story was to speak to Jim Raynor herself, but that wasn't going to be easy. Having been a hunted mercenary all these years meant the man was exceptionally skilled in the art of evasion, and despite the vast amounts of Dominion resources Emperor Mengsk had spent to bring Raynor to justice, the efforts had failed. It left the reporter with no doubt that he could only be found when he wanted to be found.

Nevertheless, Kate felt that in the aftermath of everything that's happened, Raynor would lower his guard to a degree. Due to Prince Valerian's reports, the rebel commander was being praised as a hero from numerous worlds, even the pro-Dominion ones. The story she just got from Dr. Maxwell would strain the Dominion even further, and although the backlashes had proved to be awful with riots and uprisings after Raynor's actions on Korhal, Lockwell felt that such a Dominion government does not deserve to remain in place.

It was exactly this reason that she had wanted to speak to Dr. Maxwell further, though off the air. Shortly after the Korhal broadcasts, Raynor and his Raiders went silent on their revolution. According to Prince Valerian, the Dominion forces he had acquisitioned had struck a temporary alliance with the Raiders to invade Char, during which UNN had announced that the Dominion claimed to have squashed Raynor and his Raiders for good.

Yet the fact that the Raiders had liberated Agria from the Zerg proved to the reporter that no matter what shape they're now in after what had transpired on Char, they were far from crushed. Kate had no doubt that although there had been little reports regarding further Raider activities, it would seem impossible that Raynor would simply abandon his rebellion against the Dominion. For that reason, this silence from the Raiders was nothing more than the calm before the storm.

Nevertheless, she felt she needed to understand Raynor's motives and intentions. Mengsk's rebellion against the Confederacy and ascension to power was never questioned until the broadcasts on Korhal were made public, sending the entire Dominion into chaos. But while Lockwell had announced that the UNN would no longer be 100 percent pro-Dominion, it did not mean she intended to completely turn her back on the Dominion government. Rather, she hoped to determine more perspectives on the story at hand. Unlike Donny, she knew that there were multiple sides to the story, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Dr. Maxwell followed her into a conference room, where the two of them sat down at the table seats. Kate made sure they were to be left alone and undisturbed while she tried to get some more information out of him, and she assured him that there won't be any cameras, so it won't go live on the air.

"I'm guessing this is about trying to find the bigger players," Dr. Maxwell began.

"You're right, doctor," Lockwell replied. "I had hoped to speak with Dr. Hanson as she's the head of the colony, but she's with Jim Raynor and left you in charge instead of the rebuilding on Agria."

"She felt compelled to stay with him and to understand his principals. Everyone here is still bitter that the Dominion did nothing to help us, and most of us feel its military is too incompetent. Hell, during the Zerg invasion there were reports that the Dominion even turned away the colony ships. We were nothing but homeless refugees seeking shelter and the Dominion treated us as a liability problem."

"I know how you feel," Kate said softly. "I had seen the conditions on Meinhoff and saw how bad the conditions were. Yet Emperor Mengsk continued to order Dominion ships to turn away the refugee ships if they enter the core world systems."

"My gut feeling is that he would have ordered them to shoot us out of the sky if we didn't turn away," Maxwell said bitterly. "Lucky for us it didn't have to come to that as Raynor helped us out on Haven. Apparently the Zerg virus had infected some of the colonists and the Protoss arrived with the intention of killing us all to prevent it from spreading. If the Raiders hadn't intervened and forced the Protoss away we would have been dead one way or another."

"We're technically not at war with the Protoss though," Kate pointed out.

"No, but they are at war with the Zerg just as we still are," Maxwell explained. "If the Zerg virus succeeded in infecting us, we'd become them, and the Protoss had no intention of allowing that. Dr. Hanson believed she could find a cure for the virus, but the Protoss wouldn't listen. We got lucky because Raynor had faith in her skills and sided with her."

"Since you're praising Jim Raynor so much, you happen to know where he is now?" Kate asked.

"You want to know his side of the story?" Off Lockwell's nod, Maxwell rubbed his chin. "All I know is that he wanted to get more allies to help the Protoss in their causes after he was done on Agria, and thus he would head off to New Folsom to do just that. If he's not there, then I wouldn't know where he is, other than he's fighting alongside the Protoss for reasons that I don't understand."

"Any idea where that might be?"

"Not at all, Kate. All I know is this much: Raynor has no intention of giving up his revolution as long as Mengsk is still on the Dominion throne. I don't know if this means he's trying to force new leadership for the Dominion or cause it to dissolve completely, but I guarantee you that you'll be seeing his activities in time. During the time the Agrian colonist spent with him, he made it clear that his rebellion is going to continue until Mengsk is brought to justice."

Lockwell sighed. As the head anchor of UNN, she had changed the nature of the new reports so that they would no longer be pro-Dominion, but Raynor wouldn't know that. As far as he was concerned, the network personnel were nothing but a bunch of mindless puppets. She on the other hand always tried to show the other side of the story, but after being portrayed as a terrorist by the media for so many years, it's not likely Raynor would be convinced by this. The only way to convince him otherwise was to speak to him face to face, but other media branches had already confirmed of the events at New Folsom and how the Raiders had busted the prison complex open and liberated almost two million forced laborers that the Dominion had used to build up their military arsenal.

No one seemed to know where Jim Raynor had gone since then, but Kate was unwilling to give up. Much of the non-Dominion worlds were skeptical about Mengsk's propaganda towards the rebel for years, and the reporter was determined to learn more about him. It certainly wouldn't be easy, but she had set her sights on her goal, and she wasn't about to abandon it.

* * *

**Southern Attack Sector, Aiur**

Lieutenant Franklin fired repeatedly with his C-14 gauss rifle, spraying the depleted uranium rounds at the Zerg creatures along with the rest of his squad. They were mixed with some of the War Pig mercenaries Raynor had acquisitioned in the early stages of the war for his revolution, and this had made some of his fellow marines, Marauders, and Firebats uncomfortable. Despite the fact that they were formidable fighters, the fact remained that they were mercenaries. They may be needed to help clear out the Zerg, but Franklin was unsure of where their true loyalties lie.

Nevertheless, he felt secure where he was. The Protoss Colossi machines had done their work well, roasting every Zerg they came across with their thermal lances. Despite the heavy fighting, Franklin and his squad were doing more of a job of cleaning up the stragglers. Occasionally they would come across the Zerg Roaches that were fortunate enough to sneak past the Colossi, but the Diamondback hover tanks that had been assigned to support them took care of the matter, their eviscerator rail guns quickly tearing through their carapace.

Despite the increasing seismic activity that has been occurring all over the sectors and the warnings that a new Zerg creature could be emerging out onto the battlefield, his squad wasn't one bit worried. With the Thors and Colossi supporting them, surely there was nothing to be afraid of.

That was, until the seismic activity suddenly peaked at their location.

Without warning, the ground suddenly cracked open, and Thors and Colossi toppled into the opening.

"Everyone get back!" Franklin shouted. "Something is coming out!"

For most of his squad however, this came too late. Suddenly more and more of the ground began to cave in, and swallowed many of his squad mates whole. As Franklin looked up the opening, what he saw horrified him.

Suddenly, mass amounts of tentacles surged out of the opening. They were massive in size, unlike anything Franklin had ever seen before. Before they even realized what was happening, many of the Thors were ensnared by the tentacles and crushed. As the Zerg creature finally emerged from the ground, all of Franklin's thoughts of an easy push to their final destination evaporated.

The Zerg creature was massive, so huge that even the mighty Thor walkers looked like a child's toy in comparison. It was bipedal, and had many tentacles on its back. As it fully emerged from the ground, Franklin could see that the twin claws on its arms were so huge, it would be able to crush even the Odin walker within it with ease. The creature reared its head and roared, its mouth revealing countless numbers of razor sharp teeth, and the sheer ferocity of the roar had sent several Wraiths off their trajectory, where one of them was swallowed whole by the creature.

As Franklin looked down at his C-14 gauss rifle, he uttered the words everyone around him were thinking, "I think I'm going to need a bigger gun."

* * *

**Author's Note: All right, for those of you had seen the 2010 film "Clash of the Titans", you should be able to put the pieces together that the Zerg Kraken ****is somewhat based on the design of the Kraken beast from that film. To that end, to my reviewers Blackhole1 and coincidencless who had reviewed my chapter 42 with "RELEASE DA KRAKEN!", the reality was that you guys weren't all that far from the truth.  
**

**Of course, in comparison, there will be some differences here.**

**For starters, the Kraken in that film was only defeated because of the usage of the Medusa head that turn the creature to stone, and the terran and Protoss forces have no such thing as their disposal. Secondly, in the film, the Kraken never really had a chance to do anything before being turned to stone, and to me, I considered that unimpressive for a creature made from Hades's flesh, and then instantly defeated.**

**Because of that, I decided that improvements will have to be made on the Kraken that I've designed. However, that is something for another chapter, not here.**

**So with that in mind, I leave you guys with the chapter I've written for you to enjoy. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**


	47. Chapter 47

**Author's Note: Hey guys, it's time for the next chapter. Now last chapter, I had given a slight teaser to the Zerg Kraken, but didn't really go too far into details about it. Here I will, and you can see just what they're capable of.**

**In addition I think many of you kind of took the ending of the last chapter somewhat in the wrong way, I never said anything that there'd be only _one_ Kraken, and by giving many, it'd make the battlefield a lot more interesting.**

**Oh yeah, just so you guys know, the new Protoss units of the Vindicators, Purifiers, and Soul Hunters had not been forgotten, they're still mentioned here in this chapter. For those of you guys who forgot their description, just go back and look at chapter 22, I put their descriptions there.**

**Anyways I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 47

**Northwest Attack Sector, Aiur**

Urun desperately veered his Phoenix interceptor away as the interceptor next to his was swallowed whole by the massive Zerg creature. According to the few Observers that were fortunate enough to escape the beast's debut onto the battlefield, the Zerg Kraken was a new addition to the swarm, having been assimilated into it after the Brood War. Yet this provided the Protoss warrior with little comfort as the scenes around him grew more and more grim.

At nearly 6000 feet tall, only the bipedal Exussumer matched the creature's size. But while the Protoss war machine was meant to operate on the battlefield in avoiding friendly casualties, the Krakens did not have similar qualms. Instead, Urun watched as the massive creatures rise out from the ground, killing its own Zerg allies in the process, before heading straight for the terran and Protoss warriors on the ground. Any Zerg creatures unfortunate enough to be in its way were simply crushed under its heels.

"Open fire, my brethren!" Urun ordered to his Phoenix interceptors. "Do not allow the creatures pass!"

His surviving interceptors did as complied, but this was of little use. Their attack runs and ion cannon blasts onto the carapace of the Krakens did little more than anger the creatures further. Using the tentacles mounted on their backs, they lashed out at the Protoss ships. The Void Rays called into area were all knocked out of the sky, their prismatic beams unable to intensify before they met their ends.

Even the terran BattleCruisers were suffering a similar fate. Despite being far more massive than the Krakens, they were foolishly flying at very low altitudes. This meant that they were within tentacle strike range of the creatures, and after fighting the terrans for so long, the Zerg had long since discovered the main weak spots of the terran capital ships. As the BattleCruisers moved much slower compared to the smaller terran and Protoss ships, they were easy targets.

With a hurl of their tentacles, the Krakens launched them deep into the hulls of the terran ships. For most, their armor stood little chance. The tentacles penatrated into their main power cores, and with an enormous explosion, the BattleCruisers fell out of the sky, as terran and Protoss ground troops scrambled to avoid being crushed from the falling debris.

The smaller terran ships called Vikings and Wraiths moved into position and opened fire with their missile pods, but like the Phoenix interceptor, they too had little luck. The surviving BattleCruisers launched their strongest weapons, the yamato cannon. But while a direct hit was able to knock the Kraken onto its back, the terran troops found to their shock that the massive Zerg creature was able to get back up and keep fighting.

* * *

**Bridge, Shield of Aiur**

"Sarah, what the hell _are_ those things?" Jim demanded. "They're tearing the ground troops apart down there!"

"They are something I incorporated into the swarm a few years back," the red haired ghost answered with guilt. "After fighting the terrans and Protoss for so long, I figured you'd all have the impression that the Zerg never use any strategy other than overwhelming numbers. These Kraken creatures you're encountering was one of the ways I had planned to correct that, and take you all by surprise."

"My boys never encountered them before," the commander pointed out.

"That's because their evolution isn't complete yet. They have no understanding of collateral damage, and once they find suitable targets, they will trample anything in their way to get to them, even allied Zerg forces. I had sent some of them to Aiur to be positioned around the Overmind because I figured that if the Protoss ever returned in force to Aiur, the Overmind's corpse would be among the first places they'd strike. Thus the Krakens would then be awakened in the event of overwhelming targets so as to maximize the damage they can do."

"Hierarch, we must order the Motherships into position at once!" A Templar exclaimed. "If the beasts continue like this, they'll push all of our forces back!"

"I concur, Templar," Artanis replied, before opening the channel to his Motherships. "Move in and intercept the Krakens, my brethren! We have come far to clearing the last of the Zerg from Aiur already, we must not be stopped now!"

Jim tapped his comm-link. "Matt, give me the position of the clouds in the sky, are they in position yet?"

"Not to the position you want, sir," came the reply. "It's still going to be an hour or more before they reach the ideal position for your plan to work."

"We may not have that long! The beasts down there are halting our advances across every sector! Even the yamato cannon attacks aren't stopping them!"

"Well what about the new Protoss machines? Can't they do something about it?"

"Yeah well let's hope the Exussumers can hold them at bay," Jim said grimly. "If they can't, there's going to be a bigger bloodbath than we think."

* * *

**Western Attack Sector, Aiur**

"Move, move!" Nova shouted above the chaos of battle. "Don't get dragged into this!" Channeling her psionic powers, she increased her speed so that she was able to run faster, but the other ghosts weren't as lucky. They did not have as much psionic energy as her, and given the massive size of the Krakens, many were squished beneath their heels.

The Protoss fared little better. Due to their hovering platforms, only the Vindicator proved fast enough to avoid being crushed by the Krakens. The Purifiers opened up with their energy lances and unleashed their deadly lightning attacks, but this did little more than cause minor pricks in the Kraken's carapace. The Soul Hunters on the other hand had no luck at all, their disruption energy cannons proving completely useless against the Krakens.

In the air above them, the situation was no different. With such a massive size, the Corsairs were unable to trap it within their disruption webs, and most fell prey to Krakens' tentacles as they were knocked out of the sky. Scouts and Phoenixes soon followed, their anti-matter missiles and ion cannon beams doing little more sending the beasts into an even further rage.

Even the massive Protoss Carriers were having little success. The Interceptors proved difficult for the Krakens to target, but the Carriers themselves were another matter. Despite constantly launching the Interceptor drones to battle, it took mass swarms of them from many Carriers to have a detrimental effect on the Krakens. While slower than most Zerg creatures, the Krakens still proved their speed and were able to close in on the golden ships before sufficient damage could be inflicted. Using the sheer power of their tentacles on their backs, they slashed at the Protoss ships. While less vulnerable than terran BattleCruisers, they nevertheless succumbed to the attacks, and many were knocked out of their battle positions, while others were forced to retreat to recharge their shields.

Nova watched in shock as some of the Krakens positioned their tentacles into a launch position, and some of them opened up like a Nydus Worm. Massive cocoons suddenly began launching from it. Some fell to the ground, others remained suspended in the air. The ones on the ground varied greatly in number. Some opened up to reveal Roaches, Queens, and Hydralisks, most of which immediately began to form attack positions. Others erupted into the Infestors, Ultralisks, Brutalisks and Omegalisks, where they charged towards the retreating terran and Protoss forces. The Infestors led the attack by launching their fungal growth spores, immediately slowing down anyone to be caught in it, where they were trampled over by the Omegalisks, while Ultralisks tore them apart with their Kaiser Blades. The Brutalisks dealt with the terran Dropships moving into position for faster evacuation of the ground troops, their ferocious spew attacks quickly able to eat through the armor of the terran ships and sent them plummeting to the ground.

Terran Hercules ships were sent in for better protection, but they stood no chance against a tentacle slam from the Krakens. In many cases this did not matter, as the aerial cocoons morphed into Corruptors and struck into the terran ships with their parasite spores. Others erupted into Brood Lords, and their swarms of Broodling Strikes turned marines, Reapers, Marauders, and Firebats into chew toys.

As Nova ran with the surviving ghosts, she heard it all on the radio chatter. Krakens were popping from up every sector, and every one of them reported the same results. All over the battlefield, the combined terran and Protoss assault have been stopped dead in their tracks and were reeling backwards.

* * *

**Southeast Attack Sector, Aiur**

"We need to get to cover!" Sarah shouted, as she and the surviving ghosts retreated away. Vartanil and the remaining Protoss followed suit, many of them cursing the former Queen of Blades for evolving such a powerful Zerg creature that was now wreaking havoc upon them.

The slow moving Immortals didn't stand a chance. A successful tentacle strike was enough to flatten their exoskeleton, while the Stalkers were unable to blink away fast enough due to the sheer size of the Kraken tentacles. Only the Sentries and High Templars were keeping them alive, both of which were constantly using their Hallucination abilities to make false replicas of both terran and Protoss alike. However even this was not met with major success as the Krakens simply increased their tentacle attacks, smashing anything that moved on the ground, even their own Zerg brethren.

Sarah turned around to fire at the Roaches that were pursuing them, only to see that Vartanil was still caught behind, as four Zerglings were trying to yank him back, back towards the deadly range of the tentacles. His psionic blades easily cut some of the Zerglings apart, but others simply moved into to take their place.

"Keep moving," Sarah told the ghosts. "I need to help an ally." With the Krakens pursuing them from behind, there was no need for the extra convincing.

Without another word Kerrigan cloaked and headed back towards the Protoss warrior. Luckily for her, there were no Zerg Overseers present. With the terran and Protoss forces retreating all along the battlefield, the Zerg saw no need to spot for cloaked units as there wouldn't be any foolish enough to stay behind.

Channeling her psionic powers, she lifted a Zergling up and threw it backwards. It was able to get up immediately, only to be trampled over by a charging Ultralisk. Sarah threw a fragmentation grenade, landing right in front of the Zerg creature. As it exploded, it softened the earth beneath it, causing the Ultralisk to stumble a little. This gave her the break she needed to unleash a psionic storm on the beast. As it roared in pain, Sarah fired from her C-20 Canister Rifle at the other Zerglings.

Vartanil yanked another Zergling off of him, as he suddenly felt he was being pulled away by an unseen force. Sarah decloaked herself, seeing the need to conserve her psionic energies.

"Come on, we need to get out of here," she said quietly.

"I can see the rest of my brethren were quick to judge," the Furinax warrior said. "It would appear you truly have changed since your time with the Zerg."

Sarah shook her head sadly. "I'm just making up for what I caused you and the rest of the Protoss, nothing more. You might be convinced I'm different now, but your leaders won't."

"Give them time, young Kerrigan," Vartanil said, as they ran to join up with the others. "You have done your contributions to helping us retake Aiur from the Zerg. Once this world is ours again, I will make my appeal to the Hierarchy about what you had done for us here."

"It'll never be enough. Billions of Protoss are dead because of me. Your homeworld has been reduced to infested ruins because of me. Your culture is in shambles and the evacuated Aiur survivors are living in refugee camps on Shakuras. Getting your world back won't sway your people one bit about me."

"Not all of us have allowed our hatred to blind us from our reason," the young Protoss warrior said, as they passed by the bodies of terrans and Protoss, all having been slaughtered on the battlefield. "James Raynor was right in that there is clearly still good in you."

Sarah nodded as they joined up with the other Protoss warriors and terran ghosts. "We have to force the Kraken to follow us," she announced.

"That shouldn't be difficult," one of the ghosts said bitterly. "Looks like they're gathering their strength to stomp right over us now."

Sarah gazed upwards, looking for signs of the Protoss Motherships. "We've all seen what the Motherships can do, people. We just have to draw the Krakens into an open area. The Motherships can fly over them and fry them from above."

"That's not likely, Sarah," Jim's voice over the radio spoke out. "These Krakens might be thirsty for blood, but they're not stupid. They're not going to venture anywhere out in the open because they'll know we're trying to draw them into a trap."

"I know," Kerrigan said quietly. "The only way I can see it to work is to use the Exussumer walkers to lure them out. They'll keep chasing after the Protoss walkers and focus solely on them, while the Motherships can sneak up on them and burn them alive."

One of the Protoss Zealots roared in anger. "You wish to use the most powerful weapon in our arsenal as mere bait?"

Artanis's voice was suddenly heard. "We do not have a choice in the matter, Templar. The longer we delay, the more of our brethren will be killed by them, and we cannot afford to lose more warriors on the battlefield. As Hierarch, I hereby order the Exussumers to be moved into position to provide the trap against the Zerg menace."

"Jim, what about the BattleCruisers with the dry ice cargo we got from New Folsom?" Sarah asked into her radio.

"They're almost ready to make their move," the commander answered. "Everything is just about in position, and we'll unleash hell on the Zerg."

* * *

**Kerrigan's Hive Fortress, Char**

Ulrezaj hovered and moved deeper into Kerrigan's main hive. Despite being the main fortress for the Queen of Blades, it still shared similarities with the standard Zerg hatcheries. It was a massive network of tunnels as far as his eyes could see. The organic walls moved inward and outward as if it was breathing. This of course was no surprise to the Dark Archon, as all Zerg structures were essentially massive organisms, and this hive was no exception.

Embedded within the biological walls were countless Zerg larvae, but Ulrezaj was not intimidated. With the Queen of Blades gone, there was no one left to give orders to them anymore. And while Kerrigan may have issued them directives for defense, it would appear they had been given few instructions on how to react should their hives be penetrated. Perhaps it was the arrogant belief that no one would be foolish enough to actually enter a Zerg hive and destroy it from within that led to the non-responsiveness of the Zerg.

Nevertheless, the Dark Archon remained alert. His Tal'darim forces were holding their defensive positions outside of the hive cluster, but he was alone in here. Ulrezaj had no doubt that there would hostile Zerg forces searching these tunnels, especially after he had blasted several Drones with his dark psionic shockwaves. His shadow tendrils were lashing at the biological walls, but the hive's regenerative properties were remarkable. Within seconds of receiving damage, the organic layers would cover themselves back up Zerg larvae began spawning from them again.

It was exactly for this reason that he had ordered the Tal'darim to eliminate as many Zerg Spires as possible. They contained the genetic codes necessary to breed Zerg Scourges, and Ulrezaj was vulnerable to their plasma metamorphosis attacks. As the tiny Zerg flyers were so easy to breed and with countless larvae present, the Dark Archon knew if he was surrounded in the tunnels by them, he would not last very long. His dark psionic energy blasts were able to kill vast numbers of them, but they could all be replenished very quickly. To make matters worse, at such a massive size and shadow energy emitting all around him, he could be easily spotted by the Zerg.

Fortunately, like the Zerg, Ulrezaj was also a fast learner. It had all began when he was only an Alysaar student at Ehlna, and he had spent time at the Alys'aril Nexus and reading from the forbidden Wall of Knowledge. It was from that knowledge that gave him the ability to learn how to become a Dark Archon by merging with multiple Dark Templars, as well as the ability to stabilize the Dark Archon energies so that he wouldn't burn himself out and dissipate as the other Dark Archons had in the past. Even the Archons merged together by the Khalai Protoss had yet to achieve such mastery as he had, and Ulrezaj knew it would continue to assist him in his endeavors. The ability to teleport over long distances was also among the secrets he had learned upon reading the Wall of Knowledge, and it was with that ability that he was able to secretly return to Elhna again and again without allowing his presence to be detected by the Alysaar.

Initially, such journeys proved to be necessary as Ulrezaj required the underwater energy nexus there in order to maintain his energy. However, during his quest to reach Zamara, the female Protoss Preserver had channeled the moon's nexus of energy and imprisoned him within the Khaydarin Crystal she was to be transferred into. Until he was freed by the Dark Voice, the energies from Ehlna continued to course through the Khaydarin Crystal he and Zamara had both been sealed in.

This was of course to be expected, as the Khaydarin Crystal the Dark Archon was sealed in had been carved from the giant Khaydarin Crystal within the Aiur Caverns and thus was far more powerful that the Khaydarin Crystals on Ehlna. In fact, Ulrezaj had used the giant Khaydarin Crystal as an alternative means to help stabilize his Dark Archon energies. Yet after he had been freed from his imprisonment, the Dark Voice had assured him that due to the time he had spent imprisoned in the Khaydarin Crystal with all of Elhna's energies coursing through it, he no longer needed to return to underwater nexus to stabilize his energies. This left Ulrezaj free to proceed with his master's plans without the need for sustenance.

Such past experience had made Ulrezaj extremely capable in almost all situations, and he was able to anticipate the Zerg search patterns within the hive complex he was in and avoid them. There were still the occasional smaller Zerg creatures that he ran into, but they were no match for his dark psionic shockwave abilities. As he continued to move forward and towards the hive's main chambers, the Dark Archon could sense psionic signatures emanating from the organic rooms. From what he could sense, it would appear whatever was causing the psionic signatures proved to be stationary, yet extremely familiar to him. The energies certainly were not of living creatures of any kind, and this proved to Ulrezaj that Kerrigan had stored something else in her hive to facilitate in the swarm's evolution.

Soon, he had reached an opening in the labyrinth of organic tunnels. It wasn't the heart of the hive, but it was certainly among its main chambers. In the distance, Ulrezaj could see Zerg drones transporting materials into the center of the chamber. What they were could not yet be seen, as they were covered in the Zerg Creep, but the Dark Archon did not have to see it with his own eyes to know what they were transporting. Despite the biomass that was covering it, it still gave off a shining blue glow that shined through the Creep.

Duran's voice suddenly spoke into his mind. "That is your prize for your services, Ulrezaj. It is not what I seek, but I believe it would assist us in our endeavors in the future."

"Where exactly is what you seek?" the Dark Archon asked.

"You are nearing the heart of the hive now, young one. Once you reach the central chamber, there will be an opening that leads deep underground. The Queen of Blades may have been arrogant, but she had taken precautions in the event her hive on Char was subjected to attack. Deep underground are where some of her mightiest Zerg creatures are located. You will find what I seek there."

* * *

**Overmind's Corpse, Aiur**

From afar, the hybrid watched as the Zerg Krakens wreaked havoc on the terran and Protoss forces. While few in number, they still proved more numerous than the new Protoss war machines that had entered the battlefield. Even they were withdrawing, like the cowards the Protoss truly were.

The terrans fared much worse. At least the Protoss showed some form of courage on the battlefield when faced with impending doom. The weak terrans on the other hand fled at the first sign when things do not flow their way, and the Krakens would take full advantage of that.

Of course, he could already see the massive Protoss Motherships moving into position. Clearly they were trying to lure the Kraken beasts out into the open, where they would be subjected to the Motherships' energy blasts. Despite their immense power, the Kraken was still considered very tiny in comparison to the Mothership, and the golden Protoss capital ships possessed far superior firepower compared to their Carriers. Under such circumstances, the Krakens would not last very long.

Fortunately, the Protoss were still banking on the assumption that the three massive Leviathan creatures stationed close to the Overmind's husk would only be used for defense, and that was about to change.

Reaching out with his mind, he touched with the Overlords and Overseers positioned near the massive Zerg flyers. "The terrans and Protoss are retreating all across the battlefield, just as I had anticipated would happen. Now it is time to devour their last hope. Unleash the power of the Leviathans and lay waste to the Protoss Motherships. Without their mightiest ships at their side, the Protoss will have nothing left to stop our onslaught, and the terrans even less so. They had come to Aiur in the hopes to reclaim their homeworld and eradicate the Zerg, this is where they shall see their hopes and dreams crushed by the might of the Zerg swarm."


	48. Chapter 48

**Author's Note: All right everyone, it's time for the next chapter. This was supposed to have gone up several hours ago, but an unexpected 7 and a half hour work shift did kind of push this to the back burner.**

**Nevertheless, I managed to get things ready and all that. To Blackhole1, who had reviewed my last chapter and said in the review as to why doesn't the hybrid seem to care about the potential threat Kerrigan poses to him, well don't worry, I had long since thought of that, and know what needs to be said about it.**

**You'll see exactly what I mean during a confrontation. So yes, for Kerrigan to confront the hybrid is inevitable, but that is still quite a while away before it happens.**

* * *

Chapter 48

**Dominion Facility, Undisclosed Location**

"Can't you see that the eggheads will need more time before they can determine what the Protoss stones are really for?" Mengsk asked over the communicator screen. "Pressuring them isn't going to change that, Ridgeway."

The general sighed in frustration. His boys were becoming very frustrated at the lack of answers for their actions on Aiur and barely making it out with their lives. Some of them had been satisfied with the answers he had given them, but others had still hoped to get the greater picture right away. Having to wait it out because the Dominion scientists and engineers couldn't analyze fast enough certainly did not sit well.

Personally, Ridgeway felt that the emperor was holding something back. Despite the fact that he was a difficult man to read even by telepaths, the general felt that Mengsk clearly knew more about the Protoss stones than what he let on. After all, his son Valerian was an archeologist, and had been greatly interested in alien artifacts and relics.

Though Mengsk did not share this interest, there was nevertheless the power factor. Ridgeway knew that behind the emperor's intention to unite the whole of the Koprulu Sector under him, there was the desire for power. However, there will always be those who would not be swayed by his politics, Jim Raynor and his rebels being the prime example, and thus Mengsk saw them as a threat to the Dominion. But despite his intellect, the fact remained that Raynor was a soldier, Mengsk was not, and therefore was inferior militarily.

Thus it wasn't surprising to the general that the emperor became interested in alien artifacts as well. Unlike his son however, Mengsk saw them as nothing but weapons that could be used to achieve the greater good, and he had no doubt the Protoss stones his boys had collected on Aiur would be used for the exact same purpose.

Even if the emperor didn't know what they could be used for, there was always the option of acquiring Valerian. Ridgeway knew of the emperor's desire for power was virtually boundless, and he doubted even his own son could make him back down and look in the other direction. If Mengsk didn't fully understand the purpose of the Protoss stones, Ridgeway had no doubt that he would order Dominion troops to bring his son in and get the answers he require.

"I'll do what I can to explain it to my boys again, sir," the general said. "But I doubt they're going to do any more favors until they get a better answer."

"I'll accept that," the emperor said calmly. "That's why your men can stay at the Dominion installation and rest, while I send you a fresh division."

"A new division? What for?"

"Recruiting measures. When Valerian took half the Dominion fleet for the Char invasion, he had also taken a huge share of the Dominion's cryptography experts. I had expected them to return to the Dominion after the battle was over, but they instead chose to side with Raynor and his terrorists. Now the Dominion is running out of personnel to fill the shortages."

"What do you want me to do about that?" Ridgeway asked.

"Raynor's actions on Korhal could never have come to pass had that Confederate adjutant not given them the information they wanted. But Raynor was incapable of getting the data out of the adjutant's head all by himself and needed a decryption expert to make it happen."

"You're talking about Colonel Orlan."

"Very good, general. I had promised Orlan millions of credits if he handed the adjutant over to me instead, which was a hell of a lot more than what Raynor had offered him. Problem was, Orlan had foolishly trusted Mira Han to keep Raynor's men off his back, and Raynor paid her first to turn the mercenary against Orlan. If Orlan had just trusted someone else with the task, none of the riots on the Dominion worlds would ever have happened."

"Then it's a simple smash and grab mission," Ridgeway stated. "Go to Dead Man's Rock, get Orlan, and get out."

Mengsk nodded. "Expect resistance from Mira Han and her forces, general. She had struck a deal with Raynor to keep Orlan alive and on ice, and I'm betting that deal is still in effect right now. She may be a mercenary and would help whatever pays the most, but that just means she would have constant loyalty problems, and I can't have that. Unlike Orlan, Han is of no use to me, so if you get the chance, have her removed from the picture, once and for all."

"She is among the better known mercenary groups," Ridgeway pointed out. "Unlike the regular space pirates, Mira Han's forces are quite sizable and are capable of causing quite a bit of havoc before being put down."

"That's why I'm sending you a sizable division, general. With Orlan on ice, I'm betting most of his remaining forces now have no choice but to join with Ms. Han, which would make her mercenary force even more powerful. They were already far more powerful than Raynor's men when the Zerg invasion began, and I will not have further thorns in my side while I push ahead with my plans."

"What about Raynor's men?" Ridgeway asked. "With Warfield's battle group now on his side, the Raiders are more than just an ordinary terrorist group now. They raided New Folsom, something most of us didn't see coming, and most of the liberated prisoners have joined up with him. Sir, Raynor now has a sizable military force under his command. It's still inferior to the Dominion Fleet, but if he keeps this up, eventually he'll have enough firepower to challenge us."

"His forces consist of a bunch of mercenary cutthroats that kill for money and that's it," Mengsk replied. "The losses on New Folsom was a major blow, but by no means a fatal one. The Core Worlds will simply have to increase their industrial output to compensate. On the other hand, all of the inmates at New Folsom didn't undergo neural resocialization. They don't have the neural implants in them, so Raynor is sitting on one giant powder keg and is too dumb to realize it'll blow soon. Those prisoners have wanted their revenge on the Dominion for years, and if Raynor doesn't do as they say soon, they'll eventually go on their own accord. Only his personal Raiders would still fight for him in such a way, and they're too few in number to make a difference."

Ridgeway nodded, satisfied with the answer. "When will the new division arrive?"

"They're not coming to you, general. You're going to them. I've sent them to Dead Man's Rock, their ships are headed there as we speak. Get on a BattleCruiser and head there. They'll be waiting for you."

* * *

**Imperial Palace, Augustgrad, Korhal**

Mengsk was relatively pleased with Ridgeway's actions and responses. He was the type of general who still strongly believed in the Dominion and their intentions for the other worlds in the Koprulu Sector. The same could not be said of the Dominion officer he was speaking to on the communications channel now, however.

Colonel Kim frowned as the emperor gave her the news of the Dominion military operation. "Sir, may I respectfully remind you, the last Dominion operation was also supposed to be just a simple salvage operation. Raynor and his boys interfered and looked where that ended up."

"That thought had not left my mind, Kim," the emperor replied. "However, you seem to miss one important factor: decryption. If it weren't for that, Raynor never would have succeeded. I've already dispatched General Ridgeway to deal with that problem."

"Raynor technically doesn't need Orlan anymore," Kim pointed out. "Warfield's forces have men to do that as well."

Mengsk snorted. "You have no understanding of some of the encryption security measures. Besides, Orlan is the better decryption expert anyway. Before Raynor had intercepted the train and stole the Adjutant, all the Dominion personnel found out was the information had something to do with the battle that had taken place at New Gettysburg, nothing more. It took Orlan to get the rest of the information."

Kim nodded in agreement. Mengsk was right in that aspect, but ever since Raynor's broadcasts on Korhal had been confirmed to be genuine, serious doubts had been planted in her mind about the Dominion government and the noble intentions Mengsk had stated. She had been part of the Confederate Marine Corps when she was young, and had risen to the rank of captain when the Confederacy fell. Despite the immoral and unethical actions of the government, she seriously doubted if the Confederacy really had it within them to go so far as total genocide of the opposing terran factions.

After serving with the Dominion Marine Corps for the last four and a half years, Kim had seen the corruption of the Confederacy from Mengsk's perspective and saw the need for new leadership. Yet she wasn't like the other Dominion officers. Before Raynor's actions on Korhal, most of the Dominion officers were simply to follow Mengsk's orders without question, even if they could not see the greater picture. Kim on the other hand, while obeying such orders, tended to dig a little further in order to find the purpose behind them. It was these actions that had gotten her a better relationship with the Dominion ghosts, who usually regarded the military personnel in the Marine Corps as nothing more than psychopathic savages, incapable of understanding anything except the concept of mass slaughter.

Kim had been recruited into the Confederate Marine Corps when the Guild Wars broke out between the Terran Confederacy and the Kel-Morian Combine. While she had seen very little fighting herself in those four years of war, she had not been ignorant of the news of the war events. Nor did she simply swallow everything the Confederate propaganda machine churned out, as she knew there were multiple sides to the story and the truth lay somewhere in the middle. Yet she wisely kept such thoughts to herself, knowing that the laws the Confederacy had set in place meant that speaking out against them meant immediate execution, especially during times of war.

After the Confederacy fell, Kim had done her own share of digging into the conflict to determine for herself what had really caused it in the first place. It was from there that she had discovered the nature of the Confederate government, and why the Kel-Morian Combine eventually chose to rise up against it.

As in many cases with wars, the economic factor was a crucial role in the Guild Wars. Even today, Moria remained one of the richest resource mining planets in the Koprulu Sector and it was no surprise to Kim that the Confederacy constantly wanted more and more of its resources to fuel its own economy. This however had greatly angered the Kel-Morian Combine, as their resources were constantly taken from them, boosting the Confederate high living standards while leaving them to wither on the vine. The Old Families drove the colonial competitors out of business due to their mass wealth, and they had no choice but to join hands with the Confederacy.

Yet the Kel-Morian Combine chose to do no such thing. Instead, they chose to set an example to others that not everyone would simply fold before the Confederates. While the Guild Wars ultimately ended in failure for them, their message had nevertheless been heard. The Umojan Protectorate had been formed on Umoja to defend itself from Confederate tyranny, and Korhal had claimed independence from the Confederacy. Even the Kel-Morians found a way to avoid the tyranny. Due to their resource wealth, they had funded the Confederacy after the war with so much money that the Confederate laws no longer applied to them.

Dominion propaganda constantly blared about the Confederate actions in their nuclear strike against Korhal, and that it was from this action that the Sons of Korhal rebel group was born. Yet while the Dominion public had been kept in the dark about the psi-emitters, the Dominion military was a different matter. Despite only traces of information, the few connections from Dominion ghosts had allowed Kim to piece together the picture of the Zerg and their psionic attraction to ghost brain waves and how the Confederacy used them in the hopes to exterminate the Sons of Korhal once and for all.

Yet even after all these actions, Kim could not bring herself to believe the Confederacy would go so far as to exterminate entire governmental factions. The actions on Korhal may have wiped out most of the inhabitants on the surface, but even the Confederates knew that such actions would inevitably cause more and more people to rise up against them. On the other hand, Mengsk's actions by using the Zerg to kill the Confederacy on Tarsonis seemed to suggest that despite his claims of humanitarian principles, he was even worse than the Confederacy. At least they hadn't tried to hide the fact it was their actions that led to such destruction on Korhal.

The information about the psi-emitters themselves were classified, but from the Korhal transmissions, it would appear they had the ability to attract Zerg to a specific area, just not in numbers that could be handled by the Confederate military. It had been this concept that must have given the emperor the idea of using the psi-emitters on Tarsonis, yet it would seem that no one in the public knew about this.

Now, with the Dominion in shambles after Raynor's actions, Kim seriously wondered if Mengsk was truly suited to keeping his government together. He was a member of the Old Families himself, and like every other Old Family had received vast amounts of wealth before and after the Guild Wars with the Kel-Morian Combine. The Old Families were usually obsessed with power and control over the economy, and Kim felt that this remained the same with the emperor.

"Now, Colonel," Mengsk said, snapping Kim out of her thoughts. "With Raynor silent after what had happened on New Folsom, now is the perfect time to conduct the operation. The salvaging on Tarsonis for that adjutant was not the only piece of equipment I had hoped to recover."

"You're sending me there to recover yet another piece of the puzzle," the colonel stated.

"The Zerg invasion of Tarsonis may have turned the whole planet into a smoldering ruin, but they have no understanding of terran technology. All they understand is once there's no more targets left for them to kill, they'll simply move on to find new victims. Sure some of the terran buildings they might cover up with their biological slime, but that too is only because there are people inside them for the Zerg to infest. If there's no one inside, the Zerg simply walk away."

"So what's so important on Tarsonis that you're sending me there?"

"The Confederates may have been arrogant and egotistical, but they weren't stupid. When it was clear that their world was going to get overrun by the Zerg, they would have stashed away anything they could in the hopes that the Confederacy could rise again and they would use what they had hid to take their revenge. It was exactly the reason why the Dominion promise to the Tarsonis refugees that their world would be restored to its former glory was only part of the bigger picture. A far greater reason was to locate as many Confederate technologies and military secrets so that they could be incorporated into the Dominion."

"The salvaging team on Tarsonis was doing just that, weren't they?" Kim asked.

"Correct, colonel. Initially it was thought the Confederate adjutant would give up some secret military technology, not intercepted transmissions. Had Raynor not interfered, the adjutant would have safely made it to the processing center and everything would have been just fine. Nevertheless, this time it will be different because I have already issued orders to deal with Orlan, so even if by some stroke of misfortune you go to Tarsonis and Raynor's boys happen to interfere again, whatever they can obtain will be useless to them."

Kim nodded in understanding. "I will head to Tarsonis immediately, sir."

"I'll send you a slightly stronger group than what you're used to," Mengsk said. "I'm not convinced Raynor would interfere again, but in the event he does, I don't want a repeat of what happened last time, where his boys were shooting up all the near defenseless trains and looting everything they could salvage from it. You'll have better manpower at your disposal to ensure such a hit and run tactic won't work this time."

* * *

**UNN Studios, Korhal**

Kate looked up from her desk, impressed with her colleague's work. "This is supposed to be classified Dominion information! How did you get your hands on it?" She asked into the communicator screen.

"The Dominion always had a serious weakness when it comes to the lower levels," came the reply. "Their officers may be hard to let information slip their heads, but their soldiers are much more vulnerable. I kept telling you, sometimes it's good to be close to those guys."

"Not for me," Kate grumbled. "Most of the Dominion marines are nothing but homicidal psychopaths taken from prisons. You make the slightest wrong impression and I'm pretty sure they'll put a bullet in your head, no matter what your reputation. I'm just glad they didn't do that to you, Rachel."

"Hey, you'd be surprised what they'd spill once you get them drunk enough at a local bar," Rachel said, smiling. "Was only able to scratch the surface though, they just said they were heading to Tarsonis, nothing more. Getting there won't be easy. That planet is under Dominion quarantine and without proper authorization, Dominion security will simply turn you away."

"I can be very persuasive," Lockwell assured. "After all, I may have announced that UNN will no longer be fully supportive of the Dominion, but that doesn't mean I've _completely_ turned on them. Besides, with the state the Dominion is in now, they're going to need all the positive media coverage they can get to rebuild their reputation."

"Kate, I must protest against you doing this," Rachel warned, frowning. "You told me you wanted to speak to Jim Raynor face to face, but you don't really know this Dominion operation there will really draw him in. What if it doesn't?"

"The guy has to come out of hiding sooner or later," Kate replied. "After what happened on Korhal, I'd imagine he's come too far in his rebellion to stop now, not with the Dominion in this state. All these years the public has only seen the Dominion perspective of everything, and the emperor would silence anyone who spreads a different viewpoint. Before no one could do anything about this because the Dominion had been strong, but now it's been weakened. If the emperor tries what he did in the past now, it'll only reinforce his desire for power and oppression to people's free will."

"But what do you think you can get out of Raynor and his rebel group?"

"I don't know," Kate admitted. "But after what happened on Korhal, it's pretty clear not everyone the emperor has portrayed as terrorists are a threat to humanity. I need to understand why Raynor began this revolution in the first place."

Rachel sighed, seeing her friend had made up her mind. "Then I hope you know what you're doing, Kate. If something goes wrong here, it could cost you a lot more than just your position as UNN's head anchor."

"If my suspicions are right, Raynor is not going to greet me with a hail of lead," Lockwell assured. "I'll let you know once I've spoken with him."

Without another word she turned off the screen and began gathering her belongings. It was time for the UNN news team to head off to Tarsonis. Officially, their story was going to be to learn more about the Dominion salvage operations. Unofficially, Kate hoped to find out what was the driving motive behind Raynor and his quest for rebellion.

* * *

**Aiur**

The flow of battle was now clearly in the Zerg swarm's favor. From aboard the Shield of Aiur, Jim watched helplessly as BattleCruiser after BattleCruiser were torn apart by the massive Leviathan creatures. For all their massive size, they could still out-fly the terran ships, as well as the Protoss Carriers.

Despite the hopes that the Motherships would be able to rain fire upon them from above, no such thing happened. Although only a fraction of their size, the Zerg flyers had excellent eyesight and were able to quickly spot the Protoss capital ships. With a single swipe of their tentacles, the Leviathans were able to knock an entire Mothership right out of its flight trajectory. Most were lucky enough to survive such a blow, but were in no position to continue fighting. Reluctantly, Artanis was forced to give the order for the Motherships to fall back.

The situation was no better on the ground. Despite their immense firepower, the Prometheus hybrid walkers were no match for the Kraken beasts, and a direct hit from one of their tentacles was enough to send the flying war machine spiraling out of the sky. The Exussumers fared better, but their arm thermal lance beams were insufficient to permanently cripple the beasts. Only their psionically powered chest energy beams were strong enough, but using such a weapon had completely backfired. As the Leviathan tentacles had extremely long reach, there were many cases where the moment an Exussumer walker's chest opened up, one of the Leviathans would uncoil one of its massive tentacles and launch it right into the exposed core, causing the cybernetic walker to explode, and killing terran and Protoss ground troops unfortunate enough to be nearby.

"Jim, do something!" Sarah's voice came over the radio. "These guys are tearing everyone apart down here!"

Jim opened a channel to the Hyperion via the Protoss communications channel to Matt Horner. "Matt, deploy the cargo now! We don't have time to wait until the conditions are just right!"

"I've already issued the order sir," Matt responded. "They're already dropping the dry ice we confiscated from New Folsom as we speak. But even then you can't expect the effects to happen immediately. You have to hold out a bit longer."

Raynor pounded his fist on the console in frustration. He knew Matt was right, but that didn't make it any easier. The Krakens and Leviathans were tearing apart everything that moved down there, and while the Krakens were slow enough to allow most of the terran and Protoss forces to safely retreat, the fact remained that the assault towards the Overmind was proving to be a complete catastrophe. With the Leviathans tearing apart just about any ship that came across it, their air support was being gradually neutralized.

At this point, the Protoss console suddenly blinked, and Artanis rushed over to it, hoping it was the news he had been waiting for.

"Hierarch, this is Tabrenus," the Furinax leader's voice came over the intercom. "The pride of the Furinax's creation has arrived on Aiur, it is ready for your command."

"Not one moment too soon," the Protoss Hierarch said, relieved. "Target the Zerg Leviathans immediately! We must regain our advantage!"

"It will be done, Hierarch."

Suddenly, from out of the sky, Jim saw a bright flash of light, nearly blinding him. From what he had seen on Haven, it seemed very similar to the Purifier Mothership's energy discharge, but this one was far more massive in scale and intensity. It shot down straight out of the sky and engulfed one of the massive Leviathan creatures.

What happened next, defied everything Jim had known about the might of the Protoss military, and now realized their technology had evolved to a new level in dealing with the Zerg menace.

The power of the energy discharge was so intense, the massive Zerg Leviathan was literally blown in half, and as the halves fell towards the ground, another energy beam struck, setting the frontal half of the beast ablaze and quickly reduced its hardened carapace, exposing flesh and bone beneath and incinerating it.

All of the fighting suddenly stopped on Aiur as the massive Protoss vessel came into view. It was like nothing Jim had ever seen before.

"James Raynor," Artanis said proudly. "You now bear witness to the ultimate symbol of Protoss might. I give you the Bisu Sowilo: The Divine Light of the Khala."

* * *

**Author's Note: For those of you who don't remember, the ship at the end of the chapter had been mentioned all the way back in chapters 23 and 24, where I had said that the Protoss were working on a vessel that would be vastly more powerful than the Mothership. This is now taken in the formof the Bisu Sowilo ("The Divine Light of the Khala" is just the ship's name, the unit itself is still called Bisu Sowilo).**

**For those of you who may be wondering why I had chosen this name, I had turned back to ancient mythologies to come up with names.**

**"Sowilo"**** is Germanic Mythology, which means "Light/Sun".**

**"Bisu" is** **Egyptian Mythology, which means "Defender of all that is good".**

**Thus by combining the two terms and putting it into the Protoss standards, it stands for "Guardian of the Light", which I consider it quite fitting for the Firstborn, especially given their mentality in seeing themselves as the defenders of all creation.**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.**


	49. Chapter 49

**Author's Note: Hey everyone, I'm back with a new chapter. Today marks exactly 1 year since I began this fic. I have to say, it's been a great experience overall. With more than 77,000 hits on the fic, I thank my fans and reviewers for their appreciations for my writings.**

* * *

Chapter 49

**Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char**

Ulrezaj stood and marveled at the sight before him. Having done as Duran requested, he had reached the hive's main chamber. As he had correctly predicted, there was indeed a hidden passageway that led deep underground. It was so deep that the Dark Archon was unable to see the bottom, but this was of no threat to him. Now that he was an energy being, he was only vulnerable to energy attacks, and a drop down a deep shaft was not capable of causing him physical harm whatsoever.

Of course, the Zerg beast that now lay before him certainly is, and despite his immense power, Ulrezaj decided to take no chances, as he had paid dearly for such an arrogant attitude when confronting Zamara on Ehlna.

"Well done, young one," Duran's voice spoke into his head. "You have successfully located the critical piece of the puzzle that I require."

"You wish for me to acquire this behemoth and bring it to you?" Ulrezaj exclaimed. "The beast is massive! It far exceeds any Zerg creature I have ever seen!"

"The Queen of Blades had seen this creature to be the mightiest of the Zerg strains," Duran explained. "Yet as with all of the other strains, she had seen its flaws and weaknesses and had worked hard in an effort to remedy this during the years she had evolved the swarm."

"Yet she spent so much energy on only a single one of these creatures?"

"Not all Zerg strains are easy to hatch and then bred to maturation and adulthood, young Ulrezaj. Despite what you may have been led to believe during the time you had encountered the Zerg, there are those that the swarm loathe to deploy to the field of battle due to their difficulty of getting replaced. It was exactly the reason why Kerrigan had worked so hard to incorporate even greater energies into them in order to enhance them to an even greater power. The crystals you had seen throughout the hive's chambers was clear proof of this."

Ulrezaj did not doubt this one bit. He had seen with his own eyes the masses of Khaydarin Crystal fragments throughout the main hive, and it was certainly possible that the Queen of Blades had alternative storages of them elsewhere on Char. Clearly, despite her bloodthirst for exterminating the Protoss, Kerrigan did not seek to destroy everything about the Firstborns without the slightest thought. She too had seen the potential of the Khaydarin Crystals just as the Protoss had so long ago, and it must have been for this reason that the scattered remnants Protoss base structures were taken in by the swarm and put to use.

This came as no surprise to the Dark Archon, and it was a further sign of arrogance for his so-called Khalai brethren. Like most of his Alysaar brethren, Ulrezaj knew the psionic artifacts could be used in more ways than merely as an energy source. Yet for most Protoss, Khalai and Nerazim alike, their view was that as the Khaydarin Crystals were left behind by the Xel'Naga on Aiur, it was meant to be used by the Protoss alone. Even after encountering the Zerg for the first time, where they were subjected to Khaydarin Crystal exposure which confirmed them as creations of the Xel'Naga, the Protoss Judicators dismissed them as anything more than mindless beasts, incapable of understanding such technology.

It was exactly this arrogance that had allowed Aiur to be reduced to a wasteland in the first place, according to many of the Khalai refugees that successfully escaped to Shakuras. Contrary to what they had expected, the Zerg too understood the potential power of the Khaydarin Crystals, and it was upon its usage that had allowed the Overmind to manifest itself on the planet's surface. Thus to Ulrezaj, it came as no surprise that some of the knowledge regarding the Khaydarin Crystals were later passed on to the Queen of Blades.

Yet despite the years that have passed since then, it would appear that Kerrigan's efforts to harness the Khaydarin Crystals had fallen short of her expectations in the hopes that their energies could be successfully assimilated into the swarm. Still, she had not given up on her efforts, and fragments she had stockpiled in her hive will now be used to the Dark Archon's benefit.

"That creature will serve as an asset to my plan in neutralizing Kerrigan," Duran spoke out in his mind again. "You know what must be done."

"What you ask is not possible," the Dark Archon argued. "The beast's power is far too great for my Tal'darim brethren to tame."

"You need not tame it, Ulrezaj. All that has to be done is for you to acquire a sample of it. At such a massive size, carving a small portion off of its carapace will be unnoticeable to it. It is currently dormant, and I am confident that you will be able to acquire its tissue without awakening it."

"I still do not understand your grand scheme, Duran. None of these actions seem to be doing anything closer to neutralizing Kerrigan."

"Once you have taken a sample of its flesh, return to me. I will issue further instructions for you. In time, it will become clear."

Channeling his psionic powers, the Dark Archon unleashed a full blast of his dark psionic shockwave at the lumbering Zerg creature. His suspicions were correct about its strength. Such an attack did not even succeed in pricking its carapace. Fortunately for Ulrezaj however, it remained dormant, completely unaware that a hostile intruder was right next to its massive body.

This was clearly going to be no easy task, but Duran had assured him that the time for toying and using Kerrigan had passed, and it was now time to take the fight to her. It was unclear what he had in mind, but Ulrezaj was convinced that he had set his goal towards dealing with the Queen of Blades directly. The Dark Voice had approved of his actions, and the Dark Archon could not afford to protest against his master.

Turning his eyes back to the Zerg beast, Ulrezaj set about his attempts to sever a piece of tissue from it. He could only hope it would be worth his energies.

* * *

**Bel'Shir**

General Madison advanced along the ground with his men. Despite the fact that there have thus far not been any encounters with the Tal'darim, the tensions nevertheless remained. Most of his troops were relieved to see some reinforcements had finally arrived, but they were not in the sufficient numbers that they had hoped for, nor did they carry adequate supplies of ammunition if the bullets start flying again. Thus most were not reassured when the arriving marines had stepped down the Dropship ramps, eager to go Protoss killing.

Fortunately, the new marines were still obedient when it came to orders, and it took only little effort for the general to convince them that hostile fighting must be used only as a last resort. Of course, for most of them, one look at the state of Madison's forces quickly got them in the mindset that not everything was as rosy as they had pictured it to be.

The scan results from the Command Center had fallen short of expectations as well. Although there were other terrazine altars less than 4 miles from their location, they were much fewer in number compared to the ones they had been harvesting from. Yet due to the Tal'darim activity there, Madison knew his troops had no choice but to head towards the new location.

"I'm still unsure about this, sir," one of the SCV pilots said quietly, trudging next to the general. "We aren't going to be able to collect as many canisters as we did before in this new location."

"It's better than being slaughtered by the Protoss," Madison replied. "We'll just have to hope they don't look in that area quickly."

"Sir, what about the amplifiers?" a Dominion officer asked.

"The engineering team is headed to the waterfalls right now. If the altars we find at the new area are adequate, I'll give the order for them to disassemble the amplifiers and bring them here."

"This would be so much easier if we could use our radios more often," a marine grumbled in frustration.

"I know what you mean," Madison said calmly. "But we don't have a choice here. We can't afford to be detected, and if the Protoss start monitoring our frequencies, they'll pinpoint us right away, and we don't have the strength to fight them."

"So what, we're just supposed to send a runner over to them?"

"It's not the preferred method, but it's the only other way. Protoss technology is better than ours, so even if we enter a coded message to them, it can be intercepted and decoded quickly," the general explained.

That silenced the marine, but it didn't make it any easier on the other troops. Madison could tell by the looks on their faces that they shared similar thoughts. They knew that they needed a strong commander to get them through all this, and thus his leadership was needed. As a result he could not go to the engineering team himself, but he also knew there would be very few volunteers for the task.

Nevertheless, Madison knew that bringing the sound amplifiers would be crucial. Although the new terrazine altars location did not reveal any waterfalls, they did reveal a few natural springs in the area. Though they had far less water flow, Madison hoped that the sound amplifiers would still keep his men undetected while his SCVs proceeded with the terrazine harvesting.

A ghost suddenly de-cloaked next to him. "General, we have scouted the area around the terrazine altars as requested."

"Anything unusual?"

"There no combatant Protoss in the area sir, but we were able to find the occasional Observer patrols."

Madison nodded, digesting the news. This was clearly a dangerous spot to be in. Unlike his ghost agents, the Protoss Observers didn't require psionic energy to maintain their cloaking, they could remain cloaked for as long as they liked. Without Ravens, missile turrets, or other detectors, only a very slight light diffraction in the air would give away the Observer's position, but by then the Protoss robotic drone would be only a few inches away, and would have long since spotted the terran intruders since most of them don't have cloaking abilities.

To make matters worse, he knew the Observers were the eyes of the Protoss warriors on the battlefield. If an Observer spotted something that wasn't Protoss friendly, the nearest Protoss forces would be notified right away. Cloaking was useless when dealing with them, as the robotic drones were also detectors.

As far as the general could see it, this was something that everyone may just have to rely on faith, but the risks were clearly unacceptable. If the slightest mistake happens, the Tal'darim would be free to slaughter them all with ease.

"Is there any way to determine the Observers' search patterns?" he asked the ghost.

"Not without getting close to them," the special agent answered. "And by the time we can close enough to see them they'll have long since spotted us. We don't know how fast they can transmit the messages to notify nearby Protoss, but given their superior technology, I'd imagine it'd be pretty quick."

Madison nodded, accepting the predicament. "Then, we'll just have to rely on the scanner sweep ability from our Orbital Command Center. That'll locate the Observers without any of us having to get close to it."

"There is a drawback to that, sir," a Dominion officer spoke up. "The scanner sweep depends on a small portable satellite in orbit, and the satellites are defenseless. Most of the Protoss may have left Bel'Shir already, but that doesn't mean they don't have any air power left. If they shoot the satellite down, the scanner sweep will be useless."

"What about the Wraiths we still have to protect it?"

"The second the Protoss draw fire from our ships, I'd imagine they'd report back to their base of our presence. It won't take much for them to disrupt our communications, though I have no idea if we can successfully jam _their_ communications or not. Even if we can, there's no way to tell how long we can sustain it."

"Still, that satellite was launched when we set came down to the moon," Madison reasoned. "Why didn't the Protoss shoot it down then?"

The Dominion officer shrugged. "Maybe they thought it wasn't important or anything, but that doesn't mean they won't change their mind later."

"It's a risk we're just going to have to take," the general sighed. "Return to the Orbital Command Center and inform the officers there to prepare the scanner sweeps once we've reached the altars. We have to know the Observers' patrol patterns, and quickly."

* * *

**Bridge, Hyperion, Aiur**

Jim entered Hyperion bridge, where he was greeted by his officers. The battle on the ground had once again turned in their favor, and the Zerg creatures were in full retreat. That Protoss ship truly lived up to its reputation of being among the greatest achievement ever accomplished by the Protoss technologists. On that note, deep down he was really glad the Protoss were his allies, because the Divine Light of the Khala possessed so much firepower that it could probably level the whole of the Raiders fleet with only minimal effort. No terran weapon ever invented could so something so similarly. Even the Ion Cannon, the pride of the Confederacy's military ingenuity, did not possess such a destructive power at hand.

Artanis had briefly informed him about the events that had unfolded on Shakuras during the Brood War, where Kerrigan had helped the Protoss locate and acquire the Khaydarin Crystals Uraj and Khalis in order to scour the Zerg from the Dark Templar homeworld. Once they were used on the Xel'Naga temple there, the effect was devastating, the energy discharge killing all of the Zerg forces from Shakuras within moments.

Yet the Hierarch had informed the commander that this was merely something he had already seen, just on a smaller scale. Tassadar had done the same thing on Aiur, when combining the powers of the Khala and the Void to kill the Overmind. The Uraj and Khalis were both fused with the same energies, but vastly greater in scale and thus far more powerful.

Despite their necessity to control the nexus energies that the Xel'Naga temple sat on, some of the Protoss weaponsmiths quickly pointed out that the Uraj and Khalis crystals were merely shards carved from the Khaydarin Crystals themselves. Therefore, it should also be theoretically possible to replicate them. As the Khalis crystal had been a weapon in its own right long before it had been used on the Xel'Naga temple, there was little reason to believe the Uraj couldn't do similarly.

Artanis explained that it was from that reasoning that the Protoss began analysis on the Khaydarin Crystal formations and landforms that were scattered throughout Shakuras. Carving the Khaydarin Crystals was relatively easy, but to the point where they could replicate the twin crystals proved far more difficult. The Uraj and Khalis were both carved by the Xel'Naga, and their knowledge of the Khaydarin Crystals far exceeded that of the Protoss. Even the Shelak Tribe, the ones closest to the Xel'Naga, achieved little in the understanding how they were able to carve the Uraj and Khalis crystals to their design.

On the other hand, the Protoss Preserver Zamara had carved a shard from the massive Khaydarin Crystal located within the ancient Xel'Naga caverns on Aiur, and that shard was vastly more powerful than the Uraj and Khalis. Of course, given the fact that the preserver's spirit now resided within it, the Daelaam Protoss were denied the chance to determine a way in which its power could be harnessed.

Nevertheless, the Protoss weaponsmiths on Shakuras remained confident that their efforts would eventually pay off in replicating the Uraj and Khalis crystals, and by Artanis's decree, the twin crystals were both removed from the Xel'Naga temple's mechanisms, and to be used in a similar way the Khaydarin Crystals were used to power the massive Motherships. It was from the usage of the twin crystals that had given birth to the Bisu Sowilo ships, and the Divine Light of the Khala was the first in line of what the Protoss hoped would be many more to come in the future.

The Protoss ship was truly a sight to behold. Upon first encountering the Leviathan on Char, Jim had thought that was the most massive creature he would ever face. At 36 miles along its length, the massive Zerg flyer made the 6 mile long Hyperion BattleCruiser look extremely puny. Yet upon Aiur, when the commander had seen the same Zerg creature, now grown to a fully matured adult, it was even more terrifying. At 115 miles long, Jim had no doubt that it would only take one powerful swipe of its tentacles to send the Hyperion plummeting down to the ground.

Yet the Divine Light of the Khala made even such a massive Zerg creature look tiny. Powered by the combined energies of the Uraj and Khalis crystals, the golden Protoss vessel was a colossal 800 miles along its length, larger than even the most massive Zerg hive clusters on almost anywhere Jim had seen. The individual terran BattleCruisers looked little more than a speck of dust in comparison.

So massive was the Protoss vessel that its shields had to be specifically designed to prevent the ship's gravitational field from tearing Aiur's surface apart. Capable of storing even the massive Motherships within its hull with ease, it was a testament to the Protoss and their supreme might.

Yet even such a sight did not deter the Zerg from attacking it. Fanatical to the end, legions of Zerg Mutalisks, Corruptors, and Scourges charged headlong for the giant Protoss vessel. This however proved to be a total disaster, as the Bisu Sowilo's weapons batteries opened up.

In an instant, thousands of anti-matter missiles were fired from the bow of the ship. The tiny Scourge stood no chance whatsoever, and their bodies exploded prematurely, killing and damaging the Mutalisks and Corruptors nearby, where they were easily destroyed by further missile volleys. Those that were able to get through fare no better, as the countless ion cannon batteries on the golden Protoss ship opened fire, and they were shredded in its wake.

The Divine Light of the Khala concentrated its forward energy battery, as it let loose another psionic discharge on one of the remaining Leviathans. Without the element of surprise, the Zerg flyer maneuvered quickly to evade, but to no avail. As the energy discharge left the ship, its range widened as it sped toward its target. Although only the rear of the Leviathan was hit, it was enough to send it plummeting to the ground below, where it was immediately targeted by the thermal lances and energy beams of the Protoss Colossi and Exussumers to ensure it does not regenerate and become airborne again.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, with only one Leviathan still active, the individual Zerg Krakens have slowed down their advance now that their air support has been taken out. This turned out to be seriously in error, as it allowed the Protoss Motherships to fly in above them and unleash their planet cracker psionic discharge. Despite their strength, the Krakens could not withstand such an energy blast for very long, and many began to fall victim to the Protoss ships.

As the massive Zerg ground creatures began to stutter to a halt, the terran and Protoss ground forces about faced, turning around and renewing their attack on the Zerg forces.

"Sir, if all goes well we should be able to clear the remaining Zerg forces in about an hour," Matt reported. "The thunderstorm cloud is headed straight for the Overmind's body. If the Zerg down there continue to resist, they'll all drown."

Jim nodded. Contrary to what some people may have thought, he was not completely scientifically ignorant. After Sarah had pointed out to him of the Zerg's inability to adapt to the water, he immediately saw the one element of nature that could rid of them without the need for appalling casualties: heavy rain.

It was upon this logic that he had ordered the stocks of dry ice to be confiscated from the New Folsom facilities, so that they could be used to help the Protoss on Aiur. As they possessed the purity of form, the Protoss would be unaffected by the mass downpour of rain.

As the thunderclouds moved over the battlefield, the results had been exactly what Jim had been expecting to see. Banelings exploded prematurely, killing their nearby allies instead of the terran and Protoss ground forces. Zerglings and Hydralisks tried to burrow underground, but in many cases the water simply filled into their hiding holes where they drowned to death. Roaches and Infestors desperately tried to tunnel underground to avoid the water, but they couldn't move as fast as the water could flow.

The Queens fared slightly better, their thicker carapace at least gave them a slight chance to retreat. However while the Zerg Creep was water resistant, it was far from waterproof. As the endless downpour of rain continued to fall upon it, the organic substance began to recede all across the battlefield. Without the creep, the Queens lost their primary movement advantage, and were thus unable to escape the rain.

Ultralisks, Brutalisks, and Omegalisks, when not subjected to the Protoss Motherships' attacks, stood the best chance against the rain. Their thick carapaces allowed them to survive much longer compared to the other Zerg creatures, but the substance had nevertheless weakened them considerably. With their smaller Zerg allies killed by the rain, the Ultralisks and Omegalisks became easy targets for terran Banshees, as the pilots in the air had a field day picking off these massive Zerg beasts. The Brutalisks returned fire with their ferocious spew, but lacking projectile attacks against ground targets, they came under attack from Immortals, Stalkers, Goliaths, and S.E.T.H. warbots. With their carapace greatly weakened and reduced, the Brutalisks were quickly reduced to piles of blood and guts, and then washed away by the pouring rain.

The situation was even worse for the Zerg in the air. Other than the last surviving Leviathan, only the Corruptors and Brood Lords had thick enough carapace to have a chance of escape. However, due to their thick skin and the masses of broodlings they carry, the Brood Lords could only move very slowly, and most were targeted by Scouts and Wraiths as they desperately tried to maneuver away from the pouring rain and to clearer skies. The Corruptors did what they could to help them escape, but in the face of continued Viking, Phoenix, and Prometheus fighter attacks, along with the constant weakening under the rain, they were unable to last long.

All across the battlefield, wherever the terran and Protoss forces were fighting under the cover of the heavy rain, the Zerg creatures were being slaughtered. As the storm clouds moved ever closer to the Overmind's husk, the Zerg defenders continued to pull back to defend their fallen master.

* * *

**Overmind's Corpse, Aiur**

From his position near the Overmind's corpse, the hybrid watched with anger as the Zerg minions were pulling back all across the battlefield. The elements of nature was not something he had been expecting to be unleashed upon them, the Protoss had too much pride in their fighting ability for such a thing. The terrans, although occasionally more cunning than the Firstborns at times, also prided themselves in their fighting abilities, and he had not expected such a tactic to be used by them on the battlefield.

Unlike himself, fused with the powers of both species, none of the Zerg could adapt to the water. Kerrigan's efforts during her time as the Queen of Blades to evolve the swarm had strengthened them considerably, but even she came nowhere close to eliminating that weakness.

It was exactly this reason that during the Zerg invasion of Aiur, despite the relentless attacks from the swarm, there had to be an element of caution involved. The Protoss homeworld had stormy seas and rainy weather, two crucial advantages for the Protoss that might have turned the Zerg invasion into a total disaster. Once again, their foolish pride had assisted the swarm, and the Zerg almost succeeded in their mission to eradicate the Protoss. Even after the Overmind's death, there was still hope that the Zerg could eliminate the Protoss from Aiur due to their recklessness in making their stand on their homeworld, but by then, enough of them had finally acknowledged that changes were necessary in order to combat the Zerg.

Given that, the hybrid could somewhat understand the changed battle tactics used by the Protoss on the battlefield, but the terran influence was still unexpected. Now the price was being paid for this error.

Nevertheless, the hybrid knew all was not lost. Despite the devastating losses the terrans and Protoss had included on the Zerg defenders, he knew they could be quickly replenished. On the other hand, the entire strategy his opponents had was based on the crucial factor of Kerrigan. If the former Queen of Blades could be removed from the picture, their hopes would shatter.

Reaching out with his mind, he touched the individual minds of the Overseers and Queens in the immediate area.

"It is no longer possible to hold out against the terrans and Protoss as long as the element of nature is on their side, my minions. Staying here and continuing to resist will result in nothing more than a useless death."

"You ask us to abandon our former master?" an Overseer exclaimed.

"There is no alternative in the matter," the hybrid replied. "The element of nature that is assisting the terrans and Protoss is moving towards the Overmind, and the substance is one that you have yet to adapt to. In order to survive, you must disperse from the area."

"But that will allow them to reach our master with no resistance at all!"

"A temporary setback, my minion," the hybrid assured. "By evacuating from here and dispersing over Aiur, the Protoss will foolishly believe they have won now that Aiur is back in their hands once more. They will continue to hunt down the scattered remnants of the Zerg, but it will serve to divert their attention away from the far more crucial picture at hand. It will set the stage for the trap to be set, and I shall personally be the one to spring it when the time comes."

* * *

**Author's Note: So in this chapter I tied up a few knots together and everything. With regards to where I got the specifications on the BattleCruisers, it came from the book Starcraft: Uprising. It was there that you learn the BattleCruisers are about 6 miles in length. The specifications for the Leviathan I had gotten by using the SC wiki, where I found a picture to compare the size of the Leviathan and the size of the BattleCruiser, where the Leviathan was about 6 times their length.**

**However, as I stated back in chapter 23 and 24, this was only the size of the Leviathan on Char, which was only a baby, and the mature adult is more than triple that size, ****and thus the need to make the Leviathans in this chapter even bigger.**

**For those of you Star Wars fanatics out there, I'm sure you'd probably be wondering why I made the Divine Light of the Khala at 800 miles in length. The Death Star in Return of the Jedi was only 570 miles in diameter, which means the Protoss ship exceeds even that.**

**All you have to do is look at the Protoss cinematics during the end of the missions for "Countdown" and "Eye of the Storm". Remember, the Divine Light of the Khala is powered by the twin crystals of Uraj and Khalis that harness the powers of the Khala and the Void, which the Protoss had used in "Countdown". Combined with the energies of the Xel'Naga temple, the result had been the total eradication of the Zerg from Shakuras. On the other hand, in "Eye of the Storm", Tassadar's actions in using the powers of the Khala and the Void to destroy the Overmind was significantly less powerful.**

**Don't forget, Protoss technology may be advanced, but they had all be derived from Xel'Naga technology, and their technology is still the superior of the two. It is for this reason that the Divine Light of the Khala has to be so massive in order to contain the massive amount of energy it contains.**

**The dry ice cargo that I mentioned back in chapter 35 is also revealed here. Dry ice is used for cloud seeding which is very useful in places of droughts, but the key here is that it can cause rain. As I stated in chapter 37, the Zerg can't adapt to the water. Therefore, if you move a thunderstorm over them, they'll all drown. Quite the effective way to rid of them without causing too many casualties.**

**Anyways I hope you guys have enjoyed this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.**


	50. Chapter 50

**Author's Note: Hey guys, next chapter is here. Just as a heads up on the update for my email problems, it would appear it's mostly fixed, but I want to take it slowly just to be safe. Therefore, for all you guys who were hoping I would now do faster updates, you have to wait a bit longer. Personal life such as emails and the likes come first, not this fic.**

**For all of you who thought the fighting on Aiur came to an end last chapter, well that's only partially true. You'll see exactly what I mean in this chapter.**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.**

* * *

Chapter 50

**Dominion Shuttle, En Route to Tarsonis**

Kate Lockwell looked over her staff of reporters and journalists seated at the conference table. "I'm glad to see you have all accepted this invitation."

"You would have fired us if we hadn't now that you're the head honcho," one of them grumbled.

"I'd have done no such thing," the female reporter explained. "This is a very risky move here and I made it specifically clear to all of you that if things went south, we could get caught in the crossfire. Whether you came here to join me or not was completely up to you."

"You don't even know if you're going to succeed in meeting Raynor by doing this," a journalist pointed out. "If the Dominion troops find out we're heading to Tarsonis just to meet the Dominion's biggest enemy, we'll be pretty lucky they don't shoot us on sight."

"I understand your concern," Kate replied. "It is exactly the reason I have called only a small group of the UNN news reporters to undergo this mission. The terran shuttles are only capable of holding up to 40 people after all, and most major events that had been broadcasted by UNN involved hundreds of reporters. Thus it only took little effort to convince the pilot that this was only going to be a small story."

"Even if you had convinced the pilot, you can't fool the Dominion military for very long, Kate. They're headed to Tarsonis just to salvage some military equipment off the planet and that's it. We won't know what the equipment is or does, and the only thing they would say to us is that the salvaged components are classified military secrets, nothing more."

"That's pretty much all I expect them to say," Kate agreed.

"Then what kind of a story would you get this way?"

"The Dominion military consists of people, not mindless drones. They may be trained to obey orders, but they have a conscience just like we do. After Raynor's actions on Korhal, you really think everyone in Dominion military would still believe everything the emperor says and obey his orders without even the slightest thought or hesitation?"

"Even if you're right about that, they'll never admit it to us," another reporter pointed out. "To speak out against the emperor is considered treason and you'd be arrested immediately."

"This time they will have to reconsider," Kate assured. "Every news branch confirmed that the evidence Raynor had broadcasted on Korhal was authentic, which means now the people know that the truth is not just whatever that comes out of the emperor's mouth. That was something I had been trying to do when Donny was still the head anchor. The reports may have been pro-Dominion, but I also tried to explain the other side of the story so that the viewers could decide what the truth really is, but Donny kept cutting me off."

"What did you expect? As long as he was in charge the only non-Dominion news you could broadcast were ones that agreed with the Dominion's perspective completely."

"And that is considered nothing more than mouth stifling," Kate shot back. "Being a news reporter requires multiple voices to be heard, not just the same one over and over again. The emperor promised that the Dominion would ensure people's freedoms, and these actions are contradicting that."

"The freedom of speech concept," the reporter realized.

"How right you are. If he continues to stifle anyone who voices a different opinion of the Dominion, then it will only reinforce the view the people have had of him after the Korhal broadcasts: that he is nothing but a tyrant bent on ruling over everything and not allowing even the slightest bit of independent thought when it comes to different opinions."

"But what about the military? They're meant to deal with civil unrest like this," a journalist spoke up.

"That's where the other main point needs to be addressed," Kate said. "Once and for all, they need to answer one simple question to the people: do they stand behind the Dominion, or do they stand behind the emperor. And for that matter, do they stand behind their choice _unconditionally _or not."

"What makes you think the Dominion troops will even think of answering that question?"

"Because this is a time of war. The Zerg invasion may have been stopped after what happened on Char, but something tells me this war isn't over yet. Don't forget, the emperor had the Dominion fleet pulled back to defend the core worlds and left everyone on the fringe worlds to fend for themselves. If they could hold off the Zerg alone, great. If they couldn't, it meant nothing to him."

"What are you getting at?"

"Don't you see here?" Kate pointed out. "What if the Char invasion Raynor took never happened? What if the Zerg invasion forces kept coming? Raynor may be good, but he's still just one man, so there's only so much he can do by himself. If that had happened, it would have meant that eventually the Dominion forces would have had to deal with the Zerg themselves. We all know of the Zerg invasion on Tarsonis a few years ago and what they did to the Confederate homeworld. Therefore, I think it's safe to say given enough numbers, they could have also overrun the Dominion core worlds as well."

The journalist nodded, understanding. "You believe the emperor would have pulled back even further and begun sacrificing the people on the Dominion core worlds as well."

"Korhal is the most heavily defended core world," Kate explained. "But if you recall, before the Zerg invasion began, the emperor had held a press conference to commemorate 4 years after the Brood War. I had specifically asked him why he chose to spent trillions upon trillions of credits hunting Raynor instead of further building up the Dominion fleet in the event of another Zerg assault. He acted as if the Zerg were no longer a threat anymore and the Dominion resources could be used on other matters instead. As a result when the invasion began, the fleet wasn't strong enough to deal with the Zerg."

The female anchorwoman paused for a moment, before continuing, "If the Zerg had begun to overrun the core worlds, would the emperor really have used the fleet to protect his people, or just himself? Because from what I see after all that's happened, he could care less what happened to anyone else in the Dominion, as long as his throne is safe. Therefore, I think the Dominion soldiers need to address matter not only to us by to themselves as well: do they put their lives on the line to protect the people, or just the emperor?"

The news team at the table all gave murmurs of agreement. Kate was satisfied that she had made her point. "This will be the other side of the story we'll try to get should Raynor not show up on Tarsonis. I suggest all of you get some rest now. Unlike the larger ships, this shuttle is only designed for short range warp travel, so it'll still be at least 7 hours before we reach our destination. Once we arrive, I'd imagine it'll be pretty busy for us, so please start thinking of the questions you'd like to ask soon."

* * *

**Aiur**

Jim stood at the entrance of a Protoss Dark Shrine building with Nova. Almost 48 hours had passed since the fighting around the Overmind's corpse had died down. Although not all of the Zerg defenders there were killed, the remaining ones had scattered across Aiur. With this victory, the last major Zerg concentration on the Protoss homeworld had been broken. All that remained were the mop-up operations. Once that is done, Aiur will be fully cleared of the Zerg infestation.

Selected for the purity of form, the Protoss warriors had greater endurance limits compared to their terran counterparts, and there were far greater numbers of them on Aiur. Most of the terran forces, whether it was from his Raiders, Warfield's troops, or the freed New Folsom inmates, were resting, the sheer ferocity of the battle having exhausted them. On the other hand, Artanis was rallying most of the Protoss warriors to finish the job and cleanse the Zerg from Aiur once and for all.

Jim, however, had other plans. While Matt and Warfield were off counting the losses they had sustained in men and equipment, he decided it was time to make good on his promise he had made all the way back on Char.

"I'm not so sure about this," Nova said quietly. "Are you sure this process won't be fatal or anything?"

"That's highly unlikely," the commander replied. "Remember, the Protoss are the masters of psionics here. They've practiced with this stuff for thousands of years, so obviously they have gained plenty of experience to know how it's done. You've fought alongside them to take their world back, I'm sure that'll serve as an example to prove that there are more trustworthy female terrans out there."

"They're still not used to too many of that," Nova pointed out. "Sarah's actions during her time with the Zerg still remains very bitter to them."

"It'll be a long way before they see otherwise," Jim agreed. "But the important thing is that the process is underway."

He then turned his head back to the Dark Shrine. "Meanwhile, I'm a man of my word, Nova. I promised you on Char that I'd see if I can find a way to help you recover your memories, and that promise still stands. It certainly took a while as none of the Protoss were going agree to do it until they got their homeworld back, but by now I'd say they should be able to pull out the time for such a thing."

At this point a Dark Templar de-cloaked in front of him. "Greetings James Raynor. Mighty Zeratul's words have indeed been vindicated when he spoke highly of you and your actions when you had fought alongside him on Aiur in the past. It has been an honor to fight alongside you once more to purge this world of the Zerg in our greatest time of need."

"Aiur is your world, not mine, Ataldis. Your people paid for its liberation with blood. Me and my boys were just glad to help out with it."

"And now you wish for my brethren to help with this female terran in determining her identity?"

"You saw it with your own eyes on the battlefield and how she fought alongside Protoss," Jim replied. "You can say this is still a rare encounter with a female terran, but by now you have to realize they're not all like Sarah when she had been infested. Don't forget, that infestation had been done against her will and corrupted her mind. She wasn't herself when she committed all those atrocities against your people."

"Perhaps not," the Alysaar admitted. "But there is still much conflict of opinions about her, my friend. Many still believe her actions in helping us against the Zerg here could be simply a method of deception for us to let down our guard against her. She had deceived us in the past, and despite her appearance change, many remain unconvinced that she would be honest to us now. The last time we had trusted her had disastrous consequences for us, so I am sure you can understand why there is so much reluctance amongst the Daelaam Protoss to believe her at all."

"She'll continue to help you in your endeavors even if you continue to believe that," Jim assured. "But right now this isn't about Sarah. I need your expertise to help Nova. After she completed her training, she received a memory wipe that suppressed all of the memories of her previous life. They're still there in her mind, she just can't overcome the suppression by herself. I need to know if you guys can find a way to overcome this difficulty and help her regain those memories."

"I still don't understand how you Protoss would be able to do this with those magic Khaydarin Crystals of yours," Nova said. "All the encounters I had with the Protoss I had only seen them used as a battery source for your buildings and weapons."

Ataldis nodded. "That is how all of the Khalai Protoss have used it, as do most of my Nerazim brethren, young Terra. However, the Alysaar are a special tribe of Nerazim. Unlike our Khalai brethren, the Nerazims have no Preservers of our own as we did not embrace the Khala as they did. As such, we required a different way in which our memories could be stored. This had been done with the usage of the Khaydarin Crystals, and was further enhanced by the energies of Ehlna which altered the crystal to become even more effective at memory storage."

"Zeratul's ihan memory crystal was based on just that," Jim added. "It had allowed me to relive his memories. You saw it yourself, Nova. There was a Khaydarin Crystal core at its center, and it was from it that stored his memories."

"Thus as we have discovered ways to store our memories within the sacred Khaydarin Crystals, we have also learned ways in which how they can be used to uncover memories," Ataldis explained. "This is true even in cases of memories in which one does not fully remember in detail, and this seems to match the situation you are in."

"That's good enough for me," Jim turned to the blond ghost. "Trust him, Nova. The Protoss are mostly rational, he's not going to hurt you."

Nova nodded slowly. "Well you've been right about everything so far, so let's do this."

Without another word she moved forward, entering the Dark Shrine with Jim and Ataldis.

* * *

**High Orbit Over Dead Man's Rock**

The Dominion officers all saluted as General Ridgeway entered the BattleCruiser bridge. "General, we have arrived at our destination," one of them reported. "The Dominion ships are currently holding in high orbit over the planet Dead Man's Rock."

"Very well," Ridgeway said. "What is the status on the ground?"

"It's hard to say, sir. Mira Han may not have as advanced weaponry as the Dominion, but she's not stupid either. Her mercenary force may be substantial, but she knows they're no match for us in the event of a Dominion assault. It would seem logical that she has simply scattered or in some other way hidden her forces on the planet, only to be revealed once fighting is imminent."

"You mean to tell me that we can't determine anything from our scanners?"

"We have located scattered traces of her forces on the surface, most of which are just marines and Vultures. But she has one of the largest mercenary fighting forces in the sector, there's no way they'd just vanish all of a sudden."

Ridgeway frowned in confusion. "Now what would she have to fear of the Dominion anyway? She's a mercenary, and all mercenaries are governed by money or other forms of wealth, not governments, morals, or even ethic codes. She'll fight for whoever gives her the highest offer on the contract. It is exactly this reason that the emperor decreed that she is too dangerous to live."

"Then that would explain why she is hiding from the Dominion right now, general. She knows that the emperor seeks to unite everyone in the sector under the Dominion, and she would have none of that. She doesn't like being under the authority of others, and this is exactly the reason why she would have located her HQ at Dead Man's Rock. The place is a haven for crime lords, pirates, and mercenaries. Most people know the planet is outside of Dominion law, and for that matter outside the boundaries of the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate. Almost everyone there knows that the only way to bring it under any faction's control is to launch a full-scale incursion. Even then, the invasion force would have to kill at least half the planet's population before the remainder would even think about submitting to authority."

"It will probably never be worth the resources to do it," Ridgeway concluded. "But that's beside the point. We're not after any of the crime lords or other pirates. We're here to get Orlan, deal with Mira Han, and get off this rock."

"That may not be easy, sir," an officer spoke out. "We are unable to locate the main body of her mercenary forces. Perhaps she has scattered them across the planet. If so, we would have no choice but to spread our forces thinly to locate them. They know this planet's terrain and environment, we do not. She could bleed us very heavily in guerilla warfare."

"I have no intention for it to come to that," the general replied. "She isn't stupid. We may only have a single division at our disposal, but Han knows that even if she is able to beat us off the planet, we'll just return with an even bigger force. Besides, if she spreads her forces out, they too will be individually weaker than if united all together, and she has to be smart enough to know that."

"So what do you think she could be doing down there?"

"My gut feeling is she's stuffed almost all her forces in the scan-shielded areas. If that's the case, that leaves only two possibilities: Deadman's Port and Paradise. The former is the planet's main settlement, and the latter is the only other large settlement on Dead Man's Rock. All the other places are only small towns and villages in comparison, and those areas wouldn't have the available technology advanced enough to build scan-shielded materials."

"So we're just going to go down there and search?"

"No," Ridgeway answered. "As you had just pointed out, they know the world's terrain, we don't. If we go down there, she'll be able to identify the Dominion troops on the planet's surface right away and will make adequate preparations. By the time we get even a rough idea of where she is, Han will have moved all her troops out of the area."

"Do you have a better idea, sir?" the officer asked.

"Just one," Ridgeway said. "Han's mercenary group isn't the only one down there on the planet. There's got to be thousands of them, if not more. I'm pretty sure not all of them are loyal to her. Even if they are, their loyalty is little more than a contract, something than can be renegotiated at any time."

"I'm not following you."

"I spoke with the emperor about this, and he agreed that the mercenaries down there would have a far better idea of where Han is. All it takes is a little incentive for them to give up that location to us. That's why a Dominion cargo ship will be arriving in 72 hours to our location to provide us with just what we need to make that happen. For now, we sit back and wait it out."

* * *

**Mercenary Outpost, Dead Man's Rock**

Mira listened to the report from one of her mercenary officers as she toured their small outpost. It had been pretty much what she had been expecting, but that didn't make the picture any less grim.

"Are you 100 percent sure the Dominion ships are orbiting the planet?" she demanded.

"I've checked it multiple times, as you requested," the officer answered. "I don't get it, this planet is a lawless world, and the Dominion force in orbit isn't strong enough to handle all the mercenaries here all at once. What are they here for?"

"Me, to be specific. I'm guessing it's in the name of revenge," the mercenary leader answered. " I helped Raynor to defeat Orlan and get the adjutant, so whatever information it had fell into their hands. We all saw the news reports of the Dominion worlds rioting after Raynor broadcasted the message on Korhal, so I'm betting that was the information the adjutant had."

"And the Dominion feels that since his Raiders only got that adjutant to your help, they're here to kill you so you can't meddle in their affairs anymore," the officer finished.

"Right you are," Mira replied. "Don't forget, I'm a wanted woman in 12 different systems, each one of them wanting my head on a platter. Most of them of course are pro-Dominion, I just didn't expect they'd actually show up here to make it happen."

"So what do we do? Our forces are substantial now that we've added Orlan's mercenaries, and the Dominion ships don't seem to be too many in number. We should be able to drive them off, just give us the order to mobilize our ships."

"That'll condemn everyone in this organization to death!" Mira seethed. "Even if we succeed, we'll have to take appalling losses. Meanwhile, the Dominion will come back within just a few days and kill us all!"

"Well we can't just keep hiding. The Dominion has more advanced technology than us, they're going to find us eventually. We're lucky right now their ships haven't made any moves to enter the planet's atmosphere, but you know they will sooner or later. You expect us to just hide from them until they get bored and go home?"

"Of course not," Mira answered, clutching her fist in frustration. "I never should have told Raynor that I'd keep Orlan on ice for free. I should have stuck a price tag on there, no matter how small."

"Well other than him, I don't see any other way out of this," the officer pointed out. "We've got the largest and strongest mercenary force on the planet, the other organizations are no match for the Dominion ships up there. If they feel threatened by the Dominion troops, my gut feeling is they'll tell them of your whereabouts if the Dominion will leave them alone. The only way out is to contact Raynor and his Raiders. He said he may need Orlan someday, and entrusted you with keeping him alive should that happen."

"So all we can hope is that Orlan is still useful to him to save our necks," Mira sighed. He was right after all, and deep down she did hope to see Matthew again. So without another thought she gave him a curt nod. "Get on the communications channel and sent a transmission to the Hyperion. I want Raynor and his Raiders found immediately."


	51. Chapter 51

**Author's Note: Hey guys, I'm back with a new chapter. This one may look a little filler, but it'll foreshadow things to come later. With the major battles on Aiur ended, it's now time to pick up the pieces and move to the next objective.**

**In the last chapter, Blackhole1 had said that the Mira I showed in my fic seems very different from the Mira shown in Wings of Liberty. I did this for the following reason:**

**When we think of mercenaries, we usually think space pirates and such. However, despite their role as freedom fighters, technically the Raiders themselves are mercenaries as well. And as we have all seen in games, films, books, and media, not every mercenary is just someone who doesn't care about anything except the money.**

**This was something I had already explained all the way back in chapter 17, for those of you who forgot, take a look at it and you'll see.**

**The point here is that I for one believe that there has to be more mercenaries out there in the Koprulu Sector with less than savage intentions****. They don't have to be as noble as the Raiders, but mercenaries are still people, which means even _they_ have to have moral and ethic codes, and that is a bridge I intend to cross later.**

**For now, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 51

**Raiders Base, Aiur**

Dr. Hanson walked out of the patients room, sighing in frustration. Stubbornness was not just a human trait after all. Although the casualties had not been as appalling as it could have been, the number of wounded remained extremely high and many of the terran medics were being overwhelmed with treating them. There was a severe shortage of the Stabilizer Medpacks, a new generation of medical nanobots that heal faster and could be injected more rapidly. They were every bit as useful in terms of treating wounded soldiers both on and off the battlefield, and virtually none of the terran wounded had any objections to it when they were lucky enough to get their hands on one.

The problem didn't lie with the terrans, of course. Her frustration was with the sheer stubbornness of the Protoss. Despite the fact that some of them had given her access to anti-zerg nanites on Haven, that only turned out to be a very small portion of the total. Most of the other Protoss warriors were deeply skeptical of terran technology and did not believe in their ability to facilitate in healing their wounds.

She couldn't understand why. According to Jim, the Protoss had the purity of form and did not possess the accelerated healing rate like the Zerg. Although they still healed faster than their terran counterparts, Ariel couldn't understand they saw the concept of seeking treatment from wounds in battle as foreign to them. Perhaps it was their pride that had prevented this, in which case that would fit in quite well with Jim's explanation of why Aiur had fallen to the Zerg swarm four years ago. Clearly they had been too stubborn to admit their battle tactics weren't working.

Even so, from what she had seen and heard, after everything that had happened to them, Ariel seriously wondered why the Protoss were still so reluctant to change their ways. Their viewpoint of the terrans as a whole had improved slightly, but for the most part it only seemed to be regarding Jim and maybe some selected few others. With the exception of only a few Protoss, it would seem that they still view the terran race as racially inferior to their own. Jim had explained that this was the same view they had taken when the Protoss first encountered the Zerg, and it had completely backfired on them. As he pointed out quite well, the first rule in warfare is never to underestimate your opponent. Otherwise, such arrogance and prideful thinking would be the end of you.

Many of the Protoss warriors had grown to respect the terran weaponry on the battlefield, as it had assisted them in clearing the Zerg infestation, but the majority still felt it was they who had done all the work. This was perhaps understandable, as the number of Protoss on Aiur greatly outnumber the terrans, but Jim had told her this was exactly how some Protoss felt about their last great battle on Aiur. Despite his services to the Protoss in helping them defeat the Zerg Overmind, even today many Protoss warriors still feel the terran assistance did little more than speed up their progress. After all, it was the Protoss energies that had destroyed the Overmind, Raynor's Raiders had nothing to do with that.

Still, the Protoss weren't _completely_ blind. Almost all of them acknowledged that had it not been for Raynor's victory on Char, they wouldn't be celebrating the defeat of the Zerg forces on Aiur today. All that remained was to hunt down the scattered remnants, and Aiur would be theirs again.

Yet despite all this, Ariel could see many of them felt uncomfortable about Raynor. Like herself, the Protoss too knew about his deep feelings towards Kerrigan. As much as she hated to admit it, they had a point about the former Queen of Blades exploiting the commander's weakness. She had read enough romance novels to know when a man is deeply in love yet was blind to admit it, and Jim had displayed more than enough of those signs every time she had seen his crew speak to him about Kerrigan. But she also knew that love makes a person do some extremely crazy things, and if they backfired, the pain would be even worse. Ariel knew Jim was a good man after he had saved her people on Haven, and she didn't want to see him get hurt again.

"Dr. Hanson," Sarah greeted, walking up to her.

"Glad to see you here, Sarah," Ariel greeted back. "I could use some relief after dealing with so much Protoss stubbornness after the battle. They seem to have a severe pride problem, too proud to even seek my medical treatment."

"It's not that," Kerrigan assured. "It's more of how they view us as a whole."

"Us?" Ariel asked, confused.

"Us as in female terrans. You have to understand, they have encountered plenty of male terrans ever since they met humanity for the first time. During that time, they have gained quite a bit of experience about them. The major experience came from Jim and his crew, and it gave the Protoss impression that most male terrans are honorable and trustworthy. On the other hand, other than myself, their experience with female terrans is virtually nonexistent, and you know how bad a legacy I had given them."

"That wasn't really you though," Dr. Hanson pointed out. "Sarah, why can't you let this go? I agree with Jim and Nova that you were never the Queen of Blades to begin with. Why must you keep torturing yourself over that?"

Sarah shook her head. "That's because all these years it had been something Jim had wanted to believe. The truth is, he had no concrete evidence that I couldn't have done those horrible atrocities of my own free will. The Protoss were right about that, telling him he couldn't prove what he wanted to believe, and I don't blame them one bit."

"Well it's not like the Protoss can prove the other way either," Ariel countered.

"You spent enough time on the Hyperion before Jim dropped you off at Haven and invaded Char," Sarah said softly. "During that time, I'm sure you had heard plenty about me and Jim, either by him or by his crew."

"Except his crew's perspective was rather limited. Jim told me he formed the Raiders after the Zerg invasion of Tarsonis, where he lost you. Most of his crew has virtually no knowledge of what you were like before the Queen of Blades took over, only Jim had that. Yet just about every time I tried to raise the matter with him, he kept it short, saying he didn't want to talk about it."

"I don't blame him. Those memories are very painful to bring to the surface. It was among the reasons why you saw him drink so much. He had hoped the alcohol could be used to bury his sorrows in."

"It made no progress at all," Ariel explained. "I saw him in the Cantina drinking it all away after collecting the artifact piece on Monlyth and helping the Möebius Foundation researchers on Tyrador VIII, both cases where he had much closer encounters with you."

Sarah looked down in guilt. "And I'm sure most of his crew had told him that I wasn't worth the pain he was bringing on himself."

"Maybe so, but I'm not like his crew members," Dr. Hanson replied. "I could tell he needed you more than anything. When he had been informed that artifact might be able to de-infest you, he told me he couldn't care less who offered him the deal to go to Char and take on the Queen of Blades, as long as it could stop the Zerg invasion. Deep down, we all knew what he really meant was that as long as he got you back he could care less what happened afterward, but he just wouldn't admit it to us."

"Regardless, with all the Dominion troops now part of the Raiders, along with all the prisoners we freed from New Folsom, Jim is going to have a really hard time trying to convince them about me. He might have convinced you, he might have convinced Nova, but from there on out it's going to be an uphill struggle. And I don't even expect him to win it," Sarah said quietly.

"Give it time," Ariel said. "I don't believe they'll hold it against you forever. They'll learn to trust you sooner or later, and that's when they'll forgive you."

"I already saw it in their eyes when I went to go see the wounded in the hospital wards," Kerrigan said glumly. "I could see it in their eyes, even the troops that were part of Jim's Raiders before the Zerg invasion are still terrified of me. I didn't even have to read their minds to see their fear. They're completely scared out of their pants of what they think I will do to them, and the Zerg blood in me only adds to that fear."

"But you haven't shown any signs of any behavior that even comes close to what the Queen of Blades did," Ariel protested.

"I was extremely deceptive and manipulative when I was her. I warped the mind of the Protoss Dark Templar Matriarch Raszagal and forced Zeratul to kill her," Sarah said miserably. "That was among the worst things I had ever done. I manipulated the entire Protoss race just to feed my lust for power. I betrayed Jim during the Brood War, and hundreds of his Raiders were killed as a result of that betrayal. It should come as no surprise that most of his crew would have told you that his feelings towards me had clearly clouded his judgment."

"And he continued to insist there was good in you even during your time with the Zerg," Dr. Hanson replied. "From what I see, Jim was right on that part, and his reasons for never having given up on you have clearly been vindicated."

"Maybe to you, but I just don't see it that way. I know I have to earn the trust of people beyond him, but even if I earned the trust of everyone in his Raiders, it doesn't mean I will for Warfield's Dominion battle group. And it certainly won't work when it comes to the Protoss, not by a long shot."

"You went to face their council and they didn't kill you right then and there," Ariel pointed out.

"Because of the Xel'Naga prophecy," Sarah replied bitterly. "All that means to them is they can't cut my head off just yet. And the longer this goes on before I have to do my part, the angrier they're going to get."

"You're making up for what the Queen of Blades did to them, can't they see that?" Ariel frowned deeply. Didn't the Protoss believe in redemption at all?

"Nothing I do can redeem myself in their eyes. And for that matter I don't see that happening with the terrans either. How do you redeem yourself for killing 8 billion human beings?"

"From what Jim told me about that prophecy, everyone in the universe is counting on you," Dr. Hanson explained. "I agree with what Jim said about fighting for the living, and that's something you've been doing ever since you recovered. You fought alongside the Protoss just now to kill the Zerg on Aiur, doesn't that mean anything to them?"

"Yeah, that I'm trying to get them to lower their guard about me so that I can betray them later," Sarah replied in frustration. "Trust me Dr. Hanson, after what I did to them, there is no hope of redemption. Even if by some miracle I can save their entire race, it won't change their minds one bit. All you have to do is watch the events unfold and you'll see exactly what I mean."

With a heavy sigh the red haired ghost turned around and walked away. Ariel watched as Kerrigan rounded the corner and disappeared, before letting out her breath, deeply frustrated. Jim had told her that most of the Protoss are supposed to be rational, but she didn't know if that would apply in Sarah's case, or if their emotions would get the better of them. She prayed it would be the former.

* * *

**Bel'Shir**

The Dominion engineers saluted as General Madison walked up to greet them. "Sir, you shouldn't have come here by yourself. The journey is too dangerous for you to travel alone and the Protoss could have easily killed you along the way."

"With so few soldiers left, there's no such thing as anyone who would be risk free anymore," the general replied. "We all have to stick our necks out into the line of fire. If things get ugly, I wouldn't be surprised if I have to put rifles in the hands of SCV pilots, staff officers, and even medics just to hold the Protoss off."

"You think it could come to that, sir?" An engineer asked, worried.

"Until the scanner sweeps can determine a better picture of the Observers' search patterns, it's impossible to tell. I can only sincerely hope it's not going to come down to further bloodshed," Madison explained.

The engineer sighed in frustration. It wasn't the answer he wanted, but he knew it was as close to as optimistic answer as he was going to get. That didn't make it any easier on him though. If the general was willing to arm such units with guns should the bullets fly, he had no doubt that he and the rest of the engineers would have to be ready for battle as well. In fact, for them it would be even more likely, as the engineers had to venture out towards the frontlines far more often with the marines, Marauders, Firebats, and Reapers. During the Zerg invasion, there were the occasional times where they had to be called upon to provide light fire support for the Dominion infantry while reinforcements were inbound.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that they were technically designated combat engineers, it did not make them combat seasoned soldiers with the rest of the infantrymen. While there was no doubt that many of them had gained combat experience in fighting the Zerg, there were just as many who were quickly killed by the vicious creatures due to their initial lack of experience on the battlefield.

In this case, the situation was far worse. As the Dominion was technically not at war with the Protoss, there have been much fewer cases of Dominion and Protoss forces battling it out. As such, battle tactics developed when it came to fighting them were more based on theory than practice, and that tended to make a huge difference while on the battlefield itself. In many cases, these turned out to be fatal mistakes.

"How is the disassembly of the amplifiers coming along?" Madison asked.

"We're almost done here," one of the engineers answered. "We _are_ getting some transport to load the equipment onto, aren't we?"

"Of course. I told my boys to have the Vultures come to your location once I arrive. They should be here in a few minutes. They weren't meant for military equipment loading, but the ore loader cargo vehicles simply make too much noise and that could risk us being detected by the Protoss. The Vulture hoverbike's engine on the other hand is much quieter and it'll improve our chances of getting to the new terrazine altars unnoticed."

"It's a start," the engineer answered.

Madison could sense the gloom and frustration in his voice. "Well, we have a few minutes. Care to tell me what's on your mind, soldier?"

"Do you really think any of us are going to get out of here alive, general? We haven't been spotted by the Protoss, so that's good, but we're still not even close to finishing the terrazine collecting. We can't even use our radios because they could intercept our transmissions and pinpoint our location."

"The emperor has barely sent us any reinforcements," another engineer added bitterly. "From what you said, he didn't even send us much ammunition if we have to fight. What does he expect us to do, fight the Protoss with just combat knives and our bare hands? We wouldn't last a heartbeat that way."

The general had to admit his engineers had a point. Was Mengsk so confident that he could get him the terrazine canisters from under the nose of the Protoss that he refused to even consider otherwise?

"The emperor is going through a very rough time right now," Madison said finally. "The riots on the Dominion worlds may have been virtually all put down, but the tensions still remain."

"And you're surprised by this? Me and most of the engineering team have been arguing why we're still serving the emperor ever since we landed on Redstone III."

General Madison was taken aback. It would seem to him that the Dominion engineers were considering mutiny. Then again, such behavioral actions was not unexpected. The Dominion marines were mostly murdering psychopaths, taken from the high security prisons and sent into the penal system, where they underwent neural resocialization. On the other hand, the Dominion engineers didn't work that way. They had a far greater knowledge of military technology and as such, their backgrounds tended not to be of criminal origins. There were of course still some engineers that had criminal backgrounds, but a great deal of them did not require the neural resocialization process to be kept in check.

The side effect to the lack of the resocialization process however is that without it, people tend to speak their minds more openly. Normally this is kept in check by the fear of facing the firing squads, but blind obedience to the emperor was not something that occurred at the higher military levels. After the Korhal broadcasts and other high ranking Dominion officers somewhat questioning the emperor, there was a very real risk the whole of the Dominion infrastructure could be turned upside down. And unlike Mengsk, Madison knew that simply avoiding these questions and expecting the Dominion officers to just blindly obey orders would not make the problem fade away. Rather, it would simply cause everything to escalate further.

"General, you have to look at this way," another engineer spoke up. "We all know the emperor had given us the mining missions on Redstone III as well as here to help him. But he didn't say anything more specific than that."

"There are some things that are not meant to be specified right away," Madison explained.

"True, but after all the casualties we've suffered through, even you have to want answers."

"That's true," the general admitted. "I spoke to Mengsk about this, and he promised that once we collect the terrazine canisters for him, he'll inform me of the details. Once I get them, I'll let you know."

"Something tells me the details aren't going to be anything you like to hear," the engineer grumbled. "I'm betting he kept things vague for us because the main benefits are going to go to him, not us."

"He did say he was trying to secure his throne position after what Raynor pulled off on Korhal," Madison conceded.

"And what about us? We're his people! Does he even care what happens to us?" the engineer asked angrily.

"Well obviously he has to. The Dominion is nothing without the people in it. Mengsk wouldn't be stupid enough to abandon us."

"The public doesn't seem to see it that way, sir. You heard the news reports just like we did. The public thinks he's only looking out for himself. Everyone else is a distant second."

"What do you think then?" Madison pressed. "You think Mengsk would really do that to us?"

The Dominion engineer sighed. "All I know is that when the going gets extremely rough, it shows a person's true character. After the broadcasts on Korhal and his son's broadcasts praising Raynor of the Char invasion, the emperor's popularity is at an all time low. When a man gets desperate, he may sink to new lows to get back on top."

"He's got a point, sir," another engineer spoke up. "If this entire mining operation is part of the emperor's plan to reaffirm his throne, once we get the goods to him we will have outlived our usefulness and he may choose to have us killed so we can't tell anyone else about it."

"I'm one of the top Dominion generals," Madison stated. "Mengsk would never kill off such a skilled officer."

"Ok fine, maybe _you_ aren't expendable, but what about the rest of us?"

"Mengsk won't do it," the general assured. "He needs all the support he can get right now, my gut feeling is he's going to try to stay on the good side of people."

At this point, a few Vultures emerged from the jungle's dense foliage. "General, we are ready to begin the transport of the amplifier equipment," the drivers announced.

Madison nodded to his engineers. "We can talk more about this another time. For the time being, we buck up and finish the terrazine collecting here."

* * *

**Dominion Command BattleCruiser, High Orbit Over Tarsonis**

"Colonel Kim, we have arrived," the skipper announced. "The Dominion ships are now holding in high orbit over Tarsonis."

"How long before we're ready to head to the planet's surface?" Kim asked.

"I'd say 24 hours, give or take."

"Make it sooner," the colonel ordered. "I want this operation to go quickly and smoothly."

"You don't have to worry about a thing. There's no sign of terran ships from other factions near here," the skipper said calmly.

"I'm not taking any chances. The train salvaging operation was based on such thinking and look how well that turned out. Once we go down there, I want our base set up as quickly as possible, along with all the perimeter defenses. I don't want any nasty surprises coming to us and ruining the operation."

"This is a secret salvaging operation, no one knows about it but the emperor and us."

"Rule of thumb: never underestimate your enemy. The Dominion salvage teams that dug up that Confederate adjutant were too cocky in their thinking, and the result was Raynor and his Raiders killed a huge chunk of them on Tarsonis only weeks ago."

"We're better prepared compared to the Dominion salvage teams previously," the skipper pointed out. "Raynor only succeeded last time due to hit and run tactics. The forces we have at our disposal will ensure that doesn't work. Besides, you're acting like the second we hit the surface, he and his Raider terrorists will show up right away. They may not even show up to Tarsonis at all."

"Maybe not," Kim agreed. "But it makes no difference whether he shows up or not. This isn't some archeological dig we're here for. We're going to be excavating military secrets that once belonged to the Confederacy. The Dominion is in a pretty rough position right now, so we have to do our part to patch things up."

She turned to the logistics officer. "Accelerate the preparations. I want our forces to be down on Tarsonis's surface as soon as possible."


	52. Chapter 52

**Author's Note: Hey guys, sorry about the delay and all that, but things have happened on my end that have just been way out of whack. First off, I'm currently suffering from gout pain from my calf, so right now I can barely walk. Second, some scam person over the phone the other day tried to defraud me into stealing money from my bank account, it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. These two factors have just completely knocked me out of my writing mood.**

**Don't worry, I did promise I'd finish the fic, so I guarantee you that the fic will go on, just give me a little time to get out of this situation.**

**That having been said, this chapter will begin a slight shift in the direction of character development. This fic is devoted to more than just developing Raynor and Kerrigan's personalities and all that.**

**So I hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 52

**Dark Templar Shrine Entrance, Aiur**

"Jim, you don't have to do this," Nova said, as the two of them stood in front of Ataldis. "Personally I don't get why you even suggested it in the first place. They're _my_ memories, not yours, don't see the point in you coming along for the ride."

"I did tell you about endurance," the rebel commander admitted. "But everyone has a breaking point. Just because there's virtually no record of any Dominion ghost having reached it doesn't mean it's never happened before."

"If we had we would have been considered unworthy to be considered a Dominion ghost," the blond replied. "It's standard protocol for all ghosts to undergo much hardship before we could graduate from the academy. Otherwise, we would be ineffective in the missions assigned to us, or even on the battlefield, for that matter. I may have been the Dominion's best, but it's not like they would have granted me an exception to this."

"I don't doubt that," Jim said. "But all the training in the world doesn't make you unbreakable. Just because you don't recall being pushed to your breaking point simply means no one has tried hard enough to yet, not because you don't have one. When I was talking to you about endurance and all that, I did say the individual must be strong. But what you need to understand is that none of us are strong enough to handle it all alone. Some things are not meant to be endured that way."

Nova was about to protest when Jim continued, "Don't forget, I had spoken to Dr. Hanson about the Neural Inhibitors that the Dominion ghosts have implanted in them. Other than independent thought, those things essentially turn ghosts into drones, where you become near incapable of feeling emotion at all. Thus if the implants get removed, every time you feel emotion of any kind, you would feel it at least tenfold compared to how a normal person would. For that reason, your mind is still in its developing stages when it comes to emotion."

"You think I can't handle it?" Nova asked.

"All I'm saying is that it's every bit as painful to feel emotions as it is not to feel them at all," Jim said quietly. "Once the Protoss have cleared the last of the Zerg from Aiur, Sarah and I will head to the Overmind's corpse to see if more can be learned about the prophecy. If nothing can be done about it right on the spot, we'll simply shift our attention back towards Mengsk and towards toppling his Dominion government."

Nova shot him a look, confused about what he was getting at.

"You know as well as I do about how Mengsk toys with the emotions of others and manipulates them to suit his own purposes. In order to be successful, we need to be in control. Even now I'm still unsure how well Sarah will react about the revolution, since she is the one that had been most wronged by him. The last thing I need is more people letting their anger and rage get the better of them and go all psycho for revenge. Not that I'm saying that's _definitely_ what you'll uncover in your memories, but it's still a precaution that I have to take."

The blond ghost sighed. Jim was right on that aspect. During her time with the Raiders, he had made only small attempts to try to peel the layers in uncovering her past, as the memory wipe had suppressed them too heavily. He had seen her become more compassionate towards others, but it still didn't change the fact that he knew she had no way of remembering her previous life without outside help.

"Nova, all I'm doing here is just about the exact same thing you and I both did with Sarah back on Haven," Jim said softly. "You saw the state she was in when she first woke up. Now tell me honestly, what do you think would have happened if we hadn't helped her there?"

Nova nodded slowly, finally understanding. "The pressure would have been too much for her to handle. She would have gone completely insane and might have killed herself in the process."

"And that's the same thing with you here. Look, I'm not saying your past could have anything that traumatizing. But if it is, I want to be there for you for support if you need it," Jim explained.

She gave Jim's hand a squeeze. "Thanks, Jim. I appreciate it." Nova then turned her head to Ataldis. "I'm ready to find out about my past."

The Alysaar gave a nod, as his Khaydarin Crystal Amulet began to glow. "Then let us begin."

Suddenly, the chamber around Jim and Nova exploded with energy and the blond ghost felt something strange, like nothing she had ever experienced before. Nova felt a temporary discomfort in her head, and memories buried deep within her were awakened.

She saw herself almost five years ago, when she young, and at the a huge reception party for her birthday. She saw her father Constantino Terra announcing a speech at her family's residence, the Terra Skyscraper, where she stood at the center of the domed space. All around her were guests of the Old Families, as well as the Terra servants.

Seeing such a sight made Nova smile. It had been years since she felt so special. Not that she constantly wanted to be the center of attention, but despite being the Dominion's top ghost agent, she had received only minor acknowledgement and recognition.

Jim, however, was wide eyed with shock. "You were an Old Family member, Nova?"

The blond ghost opened her mouth to reply, before she caught something different about the commander. She saw a slight dark glimmer in his eyes. It wasn't jealousy, but what looked more like anger. The tone of his voice also seemed to have a touch of anger in them, but she couldn't understand why.

Nevertheless, she had no intention of reading Jim's mind. During her time with the Raiders, despite the fact there were still moments of tension with some of the crew, the majority of them had learned to trust her. Nova learned not to channel her psionic powers to read a person's mind so that she would respect their privacy.

"I don't get it," Jim said, confused. "The Old Families are the pinnacle of the Confederacy. They would never send one of their own into the Ghost Program. Both you and Sarah told me about the brutalities you had to endure there during your training. For a privileged Old Family member, I don't see how you could have gotten into the program, regardless of your psionic potential."

"The details are sketchy," Nova admitted. "I never told you this, but despite the memory suppressants, I've experienced flashes of what appears to be my past life. However prior to the Zerg invasion I was given another memory swipe, so the occasional flashes don't make any sense to me. I can't even tell if they're real or not."

"You told me these memory swipes are supposed to be so effective that no ghost can overcome it, not even you," Jim explained. "And those memory swipes had happened well before you and I even met face to face."

"Except I wasn't trying to remember, Jim. It just came naturally."

The visions pressed on, and the two of them saw Nova showed her kindness to the servants at her party, even more so than her family members. It was a complete contrast to the Old Family member Andrea Tygore, who saw the servants as little more than tools, and not people.

Jim smiled at seeing Nova's kindness. He always suspected that deep down there was a good person in the blond ghost. Then that smile suddenly turned into a frown. But if Nova was a kind and compassionate person all those years ago, what could have turned her into a ruthless and cold-hearted killer for the Dominion? Hell, at this point the Dominion didn't even exist yet, so what could have changed Nova so dramatically?

Nova saw her father opposing Tygore's claim to bomb the Sons of Korhal into submission just as the Confederacy had done to Korhal with their nuclear missile barrage some years back. The blond ghost felt comforted by the knowledge that her family was also very compassionate towards other people, no matter who they might be.

Suddenly the vision changed, and Nova saw herself crying to her mother Bella. Her father Constantino had told her that she was to be sent to Tyrador IX for reeducation. But later, as she cradled her head in confusion, not realizing her psychic potential, she heard the thoughts of her father speaking to Bella, telling her that Nova was to be sent to Tyrador IX due to safety reasons, as the Sons of Korhal had gotten stronger. Apparently, Edmund Duke had joined Mengsk's cause and abandoned the Confederacy.

Besides her, Jim rubbed his chin as he heard Nova's hearing of her mother's thoughts, where she felt Duke was a total idiot and an embarrassment. "I'm with her on that one, Nova. Never trusted Duke one bit."

"How do you know Duke?" the blond ghost asked.

"The Sons of Korhal rescued him on Antiga Prime from the Zerg. Sarah and I both lead the rescue mission, despite our protests to Mengsk that he should have just been allowed to rot. This was when I still believed Mengsk would be a force for change, before he revealed his true colors on Tarsonis."

Jim then pointed to the vision. "It's nothing wrong with what your father did. He was concerned about your safety. What father wouldn't? But it was better to make you believe the lie than make you worried that Tarsonis was vulnerable."

At that moment, the vision changed again, and the reason for Nova's change in personality was revealed. The two of them saw Nova sensing something was wrong with her family as she sat on the Puddle-Jumper's seat at Giddings Station, ready to take her to the orbital Tarsonis Starport. Nova watched as she returned back to her family's skyscraper residence, only to see the one thing that horrified her to the core.

She watched as she returned, she saw her servants already murdered. Upon reaching her destination, she saw her father Constantino and her brother Zeb murdered in front of her, before the rebel Edward pointed the gun at her.

Jim watched, absolutely horrified, completely oblivious to the fact that Nova was now squeezing his hand so much that it hurt. As Edward prepared to fire, he saw Nova let out a psychic scream of pure rage and horror, and he couldn't even tell just _which_ Nova was screaming louder: the one in the vision, or the one right next to him. But he saw the devastation Nova had wrought with that psychic scream: the effect had shattered glass, metal, plastic, wood, and just about everything in its path. In her psychic scream, Nova had affected a four block radius, killing everyone unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast, and that accounted to over 300 people.

He looked over to the Nova next to him. Her eyes were wide, horrified both had family's murder as well as the destruction she had caused without even realizing it. She had stopped screaming at the sight of reliving her family's murder once more, but the look of pure horror remained on her face. Jim gently squeezed her hand and whispered words of encouragement into her ear, but he knew this would have little effect. Sure he too had lost his family, but they weren't brutally murdered right before his eyes. Jim knew there was no way he could understand what Nova felt right then and there.

It took every ounce of willpower in Nova not to break down right then and there. Jim was right, some things weren't meant to be endured alone. If nothing during her times as a Dominion ghost had pushed her to her breaking point, that event certainly did it right there. Despite what she had seen, she was glad Jim was here to help her through this. She knew from this point onwards, the memories would be an absolute hell, and she needed Jim to give her the strength to make it through the gauntlet.

The visions in front of them flashed, and Nova saw herself flee to a place on Tarsonis called The Gutter. Apparently for all its vast fortunes, there were still places in the Confederate capital for the poor and destitute, and full of corruption and crime. The blond ghost saw herself taken in by thugs and brought before a crime lord called Julius Antoine "Fagin" Dale. Jim watched sadly as Nova had been mentally broken, and wanted death as a means to escape the pain she was in. Yet Fagin did no such thing. Instead, he hoped to have her ransomed for credits. He watched as the crime lord declared that Nova would return to him, begging for mercy, because in the Gutter she would starve to death if she didn't turn to him.

He squeezed Nova's hand again, as an indication that he would be there for her, but Jim knew there was no way for him to protect Nova from her past. All he could hope was that with his help, Nova would be strong enough to make it through all of this.

Nova watched as she became more and more weakened by starvation, yet still struggled to carry on. Yet despite her determination to live, she saw herself still maintaining her morals and ethics. Even after witnessing the death of her family and the horrors in the Gutter, she still refused to steal food from those who could barely make a living. The sight of that brought a small smile to her face, as she saw that despite the hardships she was going through, she still showed caring and compassion towards others. She turned her head to Jim and saw that he was quite impressed with her actions.

"You're even stronger than I thought," Raynor observed. "After the hell you just went through, you're still thinking about others."

"That began to change," Nova said glumly, as she watched herself enraged and channeling her psionic powers to cause an AAI to explode as the screen had showed her older sister Clara announced that she too had died with the rest of her family.

"I don't get it," Jim said. "The authorities had to have known your body was not among the dead. Why would they lie about it?"

Despite still grieving for her family, Nova slowly regained her composure. "Well, the Confederacy always had a tendency to use people in just about any way you can think of if it would suit their purposes, so I'm betting that's the reason."

"Well your actions certainly caused a lot of fear to others around you," Jim observed from the vision.

The blond ghost lowered her head briefly. "I never meant for that to happen, I just felt abandoned."

"I know what you mean, Nova," the commander replied, as the two of them watched her steal food from a man called Terence. "Even without ghost training, your psychic powers are quite tough. It didn't look like you struggled much in lifting that man."

"And my hatred had begun taking a hold of me," Nova observed, as the two of them watched another vision. This time, she used her psychic attack to kill one of Fagin's assassins called The Pitcher. They watched as Nova had made up her mind: she would go to crime lord and kill him.

Jim looked on, horrified, as the vision changed again. This time, it showed Nova's plan had completely backfired. Instead of being able to kill Fagin, the crime lord wore a device called the psi-screen and used it to mentally torture her. The commander saw with his own eyes as Nova screamed in pain from the device, preventing her from using her psychic attack on Fagin, and forcing her to submit to work for him so that he wouldn't hurt any more innocent people.

Nova grasped his hand as tightly as she could, as the two of them watched vision after vision for herself under Fagin's control for the next 6 months, being forced to psychically kill innocent people to save them from a far more gruesome death. To Jim, this was little different from the treatment Kerrigan had undergone during the Ghost Program during her time with the Confederacy.

Jim watched sadly as he saw Nova having been reduced to a skeleton of herself, barely clinging to her own life, unable to do anything about Fagin due the psi-screen device he constantly wore on his head, which cancelled out her psychic powers. Beside him, Nova was barely able to hang on to her sanity herself, as the memories of her past pushed her to total breaking point.

Nevertheless, Raynor could still see the determination in her eyes. Despite the excruciating pain of reliving such memories, Nova was still willing to keep going and complete the process. To that, Jim was very impressed. Nova was proving to be very strong indeed in such a time.

"You're doing great so far," he said softly to her, encouraging her. "I don't know how you managed to handle so much torture, but I can see you're a lot stronger than you look."

"I did it because I knew his cronies wouldn't show blind loyalty to him," Nova replied quietly, gesturing to the vision. "That psi-screen device you're seeing only prevents me from reading _his_ mind, I could still read the minds of his subordinates."

"What made you so certain they would turn against him?" Jim asked. "You didn't have a full understanding of how the psi-screens worked back then."

"I didn't need to. During those 6 months of torture, I saw a behavioral change in him. Fagin began to act more and more insane as time went on. By reading the minds of the people that work under him, it was clear that even they had never seen him act like this before."

Nova pointed to the vision of Fagin barking out hysterical orders. "But they had never seen him with a psi-screen, so the only explanation would have been that constantly wearing that device has negative results."

Her assessment proved correct, as the vision changed to two of Fagin's lieutenants turned on him and killed him, and Nova was confronted by a man called Malcolm Kelerchian. Upon disabling his psi-screen and reading his mind, Nova saw herself relieved beyond anything as she realized that the Ghost Program could erase the memories.

Beside her, Jim gently patted her on the shoulder. "I don't blame you for wanting those memories gone, Nova. Doesn't matter how much willpower we have. At the end of the day, we all still have our breaking points and endurance limits. I understand why you decided on such a thing."

Suddenly, Nova's face twisted in anger as she saw the vision of revelation as she read Kelerchian's mind, but had buried it deep within her. Apparently her older sister Clara had been put up by the Confederacy to announce her death. That way, if she was found alive, she would be sent into the Confederate Ghost Program and redesignated Agent X41822N. Apparently, from what she read and according to a woman named Ilsa Killiany, strong psionic powered ghosts were needed by the Confederacy in order to combat the Zerg and the Sons of Korhal.

"They used me," her voice was barely above a whisper, but Jim could feel the anger building in her. "They wanted me to be their weapon and nothing more."

"It's all the Confederacy sees in anyone," the commander said quietly. "They had no common sense in morality or ethics. All they see in the common people are tools and stepping stones for more power."

It was at that moment that the vision changed again, and Nova watched with horror as she and Kelerchian were suddenly subjected to an attack, and they were buried underneath rubble. Yet mustering her psionic powers, she was able to lift the rubble upwards, saving them both, despite the fact that Kelerchian suffered injuries.

Jim smiled at Nova's actions there. "See what I mean, Nova? It just proved you still retained your morals and ethics, still looking out for others despite what you had gone through."

His smile then turned into sadness. "This was right when the Zerg invaded Tarsonis. It was when I finally broke away from Mengsk and tried to save as many people as I could. If I had known about you, I would have gone down there to save you too."

"You're only one man," Nova said softly. "There's only so much you can do all at once. You didn't know about me then, and you were more concerned with other matters."

The two of them watched as Nova was incorporated into the Dominion Ghost Program, where she trained herself harder than anyone else, pushed herself to the absolute limits of her endurance, all so that she could graduate faster and have her memory fully wiped and she would finally be free from the pains of her past.

Yet despite how hard she pushed herself for the memory wipe, Jim saw that a part of Nova had something she wanted to remember. As the vision changed to her meeting with Kelerchian again, he saw the wrangler and Nova speak, where he informed her that Mengsk assigned him to track down more telepaths. Yet secretly, the two of them saw that Nova had Mengsk had assigned him the mission because it was extremely dangerous and Kelerchian may not make it back alive. Nevertheless, she showed no sign of stopping him.

Seeing this made Nova flinch. She should have tried harder to persuade him not to go on the mission, not if Mengsk was just going to use him as a tool. But before she had a chance to react further, the visions pushed forward, and she saw herself as a ghost trainee, teamed with other Dominion ghosts in the academy.

Jim's eyes suddenly widened as he saw a familiar face. "Wait a minute here," he said, pointing to the vision. "Is that Tosh?"

Nova nodded slowly, every bit as surprised as Raynor was. "He and I must have trained on the same ghost team."

"It looks like he has very good leadership styles," Jim observed. "Also almost looks like he had deep feelings for you there."

"It looks like he was trying to establish a strong relationship with everyone there," Nova said, as the two of them watched herself train with Tosh, along with other ghost members: Kath Toom, Lio Travski, Delta Emblock, and Dylanna Okyl. The blond ghost looked down in guilt as Dylanna accused her of being all along all the time and refusing to cooperate with the team.

It was at that point that Nova witness yet another horrifying event: the battle of Shi.

She saw herself, only as a young ghost cadet, receive a distress call from the Kusinis Twins from the planet Shi due to an impending Zerg attack. She and the rest of the ghost team, including Kath Toom, Dylanna Okyl, and Gabriel Tosh, traveled to the planet. Their original role had been to eliminate the last of the Old Families. However in the face of heavy Zerg attacks, Tosh had ordered the team to fight the Zerg and rescue the Old Family members instead.

Nova's eyes widened as she saw herself defeat the Zerg forces, but found Tosh badly wounded and barely alive. She brought him back to safety, and Tosh thanked her for her actions. Yet only afterwards, she saw Mengsk ordered that she and the other ghost cadets have their memories wiped, yet chose to spare Tosh of this procedure due to his wounds. The emperor then ordered the Old Family members killed, and Nova saw herself visiting Tosh once more in the hospital, denying his accusations of Mengsk being a monster and what he had done.

The blond ghost was horrified. During her years as a Dominion ghost, she had been lead to believe Tosh had gone completely insane. Yet the memory visions proved completely otherwise. Everything Tosh had insisted upon had been the truth, but she rejected due to the memory wipe.

Without a moment's rest, the vision flashed forward to her graduation assignment, where she was assigned to kill the terrorist Cliff Nadaner, the one who had orchestrated the assassination of her family. Nova saw herself berate the terrorist as he begged for mercy, before killing him with her psionic powers.

Nova felt her eyes water up as she saw herself leave him, relieved that now her memory would be wiped and she would finally be free of her past nightmares. Despite seeing the memories of her past in that she wanted the voices in her head to stop, now she deeply regretted the memory wipe. She had thought she would be free with that procedure, but now she saw that it had accomplished nothing but turn her into a mindless Dominion slave.

Jim squeezed her gently on the shoulder. "It's ok, Nova. I understand why you wanted the memory wipe. The past memories were painful for you to bear, and you couldn't stand it anymore. You wanted a fresh start."

Nova nodded gently, glad for Jim's presence in helping her through all this, as the vision changed to her suddenly aboard the Dominion ship Palpatine under the command of Colonel Hauler, heading towards the planet Altara. Apparently the battle group she had been traveling with had picked up a distress signal from a wrangler, as well as to investigate the disappearance of one of the top Dominion ghost operatives, as the neural implants and regular mind wipes prevented ghosts from going AWOL. She saw herself land on the planet's surface, only to be attacked by Zerg creatures.

Jim's eyes suddenly widened as the vision changed to Nova locating the missing wrangler. "Wait a minute, isn't he that Kelerchian guy you met on Tarsonis?"

Nova nodded, her voice filled with regret. "Except due to my memory wipe, he remembers me, but not vice versa."

As the vision continued, the commander saw something familiar as it showed Nova channeling her psionic power to split a boulder rock. As it split, a green gas suddenly erupted from it. Although Nova only came into brief contact with it, it seemed to affect her almost immediately.

Nova saw herself seeing visions of her family killed once more, and she let loose the same psionic scream that had killed hundreds of people on Tarsonis onto the Zerg, instantly decimating the horde and losing consciousness.

Jim pointed to the vision. "That green gas," he murmured. "It looked almost identical to the terrazine gas Tosh has asked the Raiders to collect on Bel'Shir."

The commander rubbed his chin. "When I spoke to Dr. Hanson about the terrazine substance, she said it was capable of affecting brain chemistry, acting like some sort of drug or stimulant. Is that what the substance was doing to you?"

"It's possible," Nova agreed, as the two of them watched herself get treated aboard the Palpatine. One of the medical personnel, Dr. Shaw, could provide no answer when Nova asked him about why she was experiencing faint memories of her past that should have been wiped clean years ago.

"Look on the bright side," Jim offered, pointing to the vision. "Those memory flashes had benefits too. You were able to recognize that Kelerchian guy and how he helped you into the Ghost Program."

"He was still right about the program being cruel punishment," Nova insisted, as they watched herself and Mal get reacquainted. "I regret being so enthusiastic about being part of it now."

"Yeah well he said you're the most impressive ghost he's seen, and I agree with him. Looks like you're the strongest person known to him, and I agree with that part too."

Nova blushed slightly as she saw the vision of her thoughts having liking the man. Clearly that substance had altered her mind, maybe even changed her back to the way she once was. She had been taught by the Dominion that being close to someone was a sign of weakness, and she was supposed to be a ruthless killing machine with only one purpose: to serve the Dominion without question. She had preferred being alone so that she would have nothing to lose or regret, but clearly the green gas had changed her morals, despite the all too brief exposure.

As the vision flashed to Nova and Mal's meeting with Mengsk, Nova saw that from the vision, Mal still greatly disliked the Dominion emperor. Clearly he did not approve of Mengsk ruling with an iron fist.

The vision changed again, this time Nova saw herself in the settlement of Oasis, Altara. She saw herself and other Dominion ghosts suddenly get attacked, yet it happened so fast that none of them were even able to know what had happened, let alone see their attacker.

"If I had to guess, that's probably the Spectres that Tosh had been telling me about," Raynor commented. "According to him, they were the new breed of ghosts, far superior to the existing ghosts today. Have to admit they're definitely something. You were the top Dominion ghost and even you didn't figure them out right then and there."

"I never doubted their combat potential," the blond ghost replied, as the vision changed to Nova encountering a little girl called Lila. She was terrified when she saw Nova, but upon seeing her friendly gesture, Lila told her of the existence of ShadowBlade.

Seeing the sight made Jim smile. "See Nova? No matter how ruthless the Dominion said you were, there was still compassion in you. During the time Tosh spent on the Hyperion, he said that when it comes to getting information out of little children, Dominion ghosts would just tear the answers right of their heads. Whether the children lived or died from this process, they could care less."

Nova too smiled at the sight as she watched herself interact with the 12 year old girl. Clearly she saw a lot of herself in Lila when she was her age. That smile quickly turned into sadness however, as she saw herself read into Lila's thoughts, where she wanted to be just like her.

"Don't blame yourself," Jim said. "At such a young age, she wouldn't understand anything about the Ghost Program and its details. She only thought it would be an exhilarating ride. Besides, just look at yourself right there. A few years ago, you wanted to go into the Ghost Program without the slightest thought. Now, you were hesitating if you were offered that choice again."

The vision flashed, and Nova saw herself aboard the Palpatine again. Yet this time, she was once against experiencing memory flashes, from the times of the Gutter back on Tarsonis. Nova's eyes widened when she saw herself began to admit to herself that although on the surface, she a stone cold killer and the Dominion's greatest weapon, inside she was still the frightened little girl who wanted things to be back to the way they once were.

She then saw herself being checked up by Dr. Shaw again, and the doctor's explanation of the green gas that seems to have the ability to repair the damage done by memory wipes, as well as heighten hidden psionic abilities, yet Nova suspected that he was hiding something from her.

Jim spoke up. "If that gas really is terrazine and could undo the memory wiping damage, could that mean Tosh's actions had a degree of nobility to it?"

Nova hesitated, but then quickly saw that Jim wasn't accusing her or anything. "It's possible, Jim. Although even now I still have flashes of Spectres being completely psycho and out of control."

As the memories flashed, Nova saw herself speaking with Mal again, heading for Augustgrad aboard the Palpatine, the capital of Korhal. She was unhappy, as she spoke to the wrangler, as the memories that she wanted gone were starting to return. Yet as the blond ghost watched, it made her smile to know that she seemed to care about him.

She saw herself on Korhal, defending the emperor's palace from the Spectre infiltration. She found herself speaking to former Dominion ghosts, now who had converted themselves into Spectres. Yet none of them seemed intent on killing her. Rather, they all voiced the same goal of wanting her to join their cause.

Of all the Spectres that spoke to her, one stood out above the rest: Tosh. Nova lowered her head in guilt as she saw herself and Tosh telepathically arguing, where Tosh showed her visions of their friendship back during the days of the ghost academy, and herself rejecting everything the Spectre was telling her. She accused him of lying to her about Lio Travski of entering the data stream and still being alive, before being caught in one of their traps and the female Spectres Dylanna sprayed her with the green gas, exposing her to the substance once more.

This time however, Nova gasped in horror as she saw herself experience one of the worst memories of what she had done. She saw herself murder a man in cold blood right in front of his wife and child. She saw the wife completely break down, beating on her with her fists for killing her husband, yet the blond ghost saw herself show not even the slightest hint of regret. Instead, she beat the wife with the butt of her rifle, nearly cracking her skull in the process, and simply walked away from the scene, leaving the little boy screaming and crying over the corpse of his father and unconscious mother. She saw the frightened face of that little boy suddenly turn into Lila, and even more scared of her.

Nova saw herself on the ground and surrounded by the Spectres, at their mercy. But instead of shooting her, Tosh offered once more for her to join his cause. She continued to convince herself that she wanted this path of the Dominion ghost because it was a means of escape, of causing the voices of her past to finally be silenced, but Tosh's actions have brought them back.

Yet to her surprise, Nova saw that Tosh did not try and force her to join his cause. He refused to even fight her, and with a bark of an order, all of the Spectres turned around and left for a place called Gehenna Station, leaving Nova alone in her thoughts.

"This only means Tosh wasn't completely psycho," Jim stated, observing the vision with her. "He left you alone because he wanted you to make the choice for yourself."

"It was also when they confirmed the substance they exposed me to was indeed terrazine," Nova said glumly.

"I can see why you requested for me to help you destroy that substance when we first met," the commander said. "Still, it does look like there was a slight benefit from it: the terrazine helped bring some of your memories back, and it looks like you were no longer an unquestioning Dominion servant anymore."

Nova nodded silently, as she watched herself finally begin to question what had really transpired on Shi, and if true, what it meant for her.

Jim snorted at the vision of Mengsk coming out to greet Nova and Mal in the vision. Others may be fooled into thinking he actually cared about his ghost agents, but the rebel commander knew better. Mengsk was ruthless and constantly wanted more power, there was no one he actually cared about in his life other than himself.

His expression then turned into a scowl as he saw Mengsk reveal the information to Nova and Mal: apparently the Dominion had detected the terrazine gas leaking from a world called D-4358, along with Protoss ruins and shrines, thus declaring it a forming Protoss mining colony. It was from there that the emperor had been aware of the substance that the Protoss called "The Breath of Creation".

"See what I mean, Nova?" the commander pointed out. "This is exactly the type of person Mengsk is. Always withholds information from even his top military personnel, keeping it all for himself in the event they could bring him more power someday."

Jim then frowned as the vision changed, and Mengsk began telling Nova and Mal about how Warfield had been called up to head the Dominion project called ShadowBlade. During the Char invasion, the general had shown to be uncomfortable around ghosts, even if they were Dominion ones. Granted the Dominion ghosts were mostly stone cold killers, but now he couldn't help but wonder if Warfield had another reason for this.

"Personally, I don't buy what Mengsk is saying about the terrazine being as addictive and making people go psycho the moment they come in contact with it," he said. "The emperor would say anything to shift the situation to his favor, and we just saw you getting exposed to the terrazine. Certainly you didn't go nuts from it."

"No, but despite my loyalties to him, he began to doubt me," Nova said, disgusted, as the vision changed to Mengsk accusing her of possibly becoming a danger to him due to the terrazine exposure.

"What did you expect?" Jim folded his arms. "It's actually among the reasons why it's not that easy to get close to Mengsk. He's suspicious of almost everyone, and trusts very few people. If it weren't for that, I'm sure he would have been assassinated quite some time ago."

"And I remained somewhat lost after the exposure of the terrazine," the blond ghost said, pointing to the vision where she and Mal spoke again privately. "I had thought the drug would just wear off once I wasn't inhaling it anymore, but the effects were still happening."

Her eyes widened again as she saw Mal named him ship after her, and the realization that she might have deeper feelings for him than just friendship. The thought of it scared her, as due to the memory wipe, her feelings of attachment to other people had vanished. Now, due to the terrazine exposure, those feelings were waking back up.

Whatever it was, clearly her own willpower was not enough to make it disappear. It was almost as if the terrazine had revived a person that had died within her so many years ago.

But Nova did not have a chance to think this over from the vision, as she suddenly saw both her and Mal pass out, apparently having been drugged and tranquilized. When she woke up, she had been chained, with Mal missing.

Raynor clenched his fist in anger. "Hauler? He's the one who did this to you? He is your commanding officer and loyal to the Dominion! Why would he do this?"

But Nova didn't have to answer him. The vision changed to reveal Hauler was in reality Bennett, the ghost agent who had been involved in Project ShadowBlade from the very beginning. He explained to Nova that Mengsk had shut down the project because he thought the ghosts were becoming too powerful, and thus denied him his power.

"The guy may be psycho, but he is right about one thing," Jim stated. "Mengsk has no conscience of his own. Still, from what I'm seeing, I don't think he is the right replacement for the job."

Nova watched in shock as the vision showed Bennett revealed his plans to her: she would turn against the Dominion and abduct Mengsk, where he would be forced to confess his crimes against humanity. This would then be broadcasted to the public via UNN, and the public would demand a change. Bennett had been convinced that this would be the sign for him to take the Dominion throne for himself and rule over Mengsk's empire.

Jim saw Nova's eyes water up as she saw Bennett used the hologram projector to show Mal to the blond ghost, chained to a wall with a marine holding a combat knife to his throat. Bennett demanded that Nova help him with his plans or he would order the marine to execute Mal immediately.

The commander gripped Nova's hand as she saw herself struggle over her duties to the Dominion as well as her feelings for the wrangler. But when she saw the marine slit one of his wrists, she finally broke and agreed to Bennett's request.

"Don't feel bad," he whispered into her ear. "No one would think you were weak in making that choice. All you did there was prove there was humanity in you. If you were completely devoted to the Dominion, nothing Bennett did would have made you even consider his demand. To be human is to care for others, and that's exactly what you did there."

Nova nodded, as she saw herself being led into the surgery room to have her neural inhibitor removed, all the while the rage inside her was peaking. For threatening the only man who meant something to her, she would see Bennett dead.

She then saw Dr. Shaw reveal that his family had worked for hers, but that Nova's psychic scream on Tarsonis had killed them. Immediately she understood the doctor's thirst for revenge. Yet she had been saved by the unlikeliest of allies: Lio Travski. Being part of the data stream, she begged her former ghost comrade to trust her one last time, and he accepted, shutting down the machine to allow her to free herself, taking Mal's ship, the November, and flying to Gehenna Station to save the wrangler. As she exited the ship, she knew she had become a different person. She would no longer honor the ghost pledge of duty of friendship required by the Dominion. Instead, she would save the life of the man who understood her.

The blond ghost saw herself confront Kath Toom, where the Spectre confessed her deep feelings for Tosh, and begged Nova to stop this and join their cause to bring down Mengsk. Nova refused, but just as Travski had honored their frienship, she now chose to honor the friendship between her and Kath, even if she didn't fully remember. Rather than killing her, she left Kath unconscious and took her Spectre suit, as Nova had been deprived of her ghost suit when Bennett had drugged her and Mal.

Upon finding Mal, she was hit with an even shocking news as Bennett killed Kath, but had convinced Tosh that it was her to who did it. Seeing this from the vision only made Nova's blood boil even more, and to Jim, he could understand her rage and hatred for all Spectres.

And then Nova saw the peak of Bennett's experimentation, the one thing that thoroughly convinced her of the abominations that all Spectres were. Jim watched wide eyed as he saw a similar machine when he fought alongside Nova on Avernus Station: the Psionic Waveform Indoctrinator.

But unlike the one on Avernus, the ones in the vision were far more diabolical and sinister looking. Dozens, most likely hundreds, of upright glass chambers filled with liquid terrazine, with wires and tubes protruding from their tops, stood in front of her. Beside them were hundreds of stasis chambers, most of them with a human test subject inside.

The commander felt sick to his stomach as he watched the vision with Nova. Those were human beings, but Bennett treated them as little more than mindless puppets. He watched as Bennett explained to Nova how with the usage of jorium and terrazine, anyone with even the slightest psionic potential could be turned into a powerful Spectre, where they would all be led by one mind: himself.

Threatening Mal yet again, Bennett demanded that Nova get inside one of those chambers and be converted to a Spectre. Yet once again, Nova begged her former ghost comrade Lio to help her, to feed the footage to Tosh and let him see for himself what kind of a monster he was serving.

The ploy had worked. Tosh had come, enraged at what Bennett had done, and in his moment of distraction, unleashed a psychic attack that shattered most of the glass chambers, including the one that Nova was in. Seizing the opportunity, the blond ghost telekinetically sent a massive stalactite right above Bennett to fall, killing him instantly.

Nova saw as the reactors were about to go critical and Gehenna Station was about to explode due to the outside attack from the Dominion Annihilator Division, she was at the mercy of Tosh, too badly weakened to fight effectively anymore. Yet once again, Tosh refused to show any signs of hostility towards her. Instead, he offered her yet again to join his side and take up arms against the Dominion. She looked away in guilt as she saw herself promising to join up with him after she gets Mal to the infirmary. Yet once both she and Mal had recovered enough, they both decided to return to the Dominion. Despite finally seeing the imperfections of the Dominion, she felt the path of the Spectre was simply not suited for her.

She saw herself rejecting Mal's suggestion to have her implant removed so that they could disappear forever, but even though she had seen what had happened on Shi, the blond ghost still had a duty to pledge her life to the Dominion. Yet she smiled a little when she saw herself make one final act of compassion: she suggested to Mal to return to Altara for the 12 year old girl Lila, and to find a safer place for her, so she wouldn't wind up in the cruelness of the Dominion Ghost Program as she had.

Yet all this was upset by the last vision she saw. Upon returning to the Dominion, despite the congratulations she had received from Mengsk, the emperor ordered yet another memory wipe to her mind. Yet this one would be different than the others, one where she would retain some of the memory of the Spectres debacle as she had reported to him that Tosh had not been neutralized. Rather, it would be one that would suppress her feelings of compassion towards others, and reverting her to the stone killer she was supposed to be. With regards to the Spectres, they had been manipulated in such a way so that she would automatically believe every Spectre is a homicidal psychopath, though this took little effort on the Dominion's part.

At this point, she felt the psionic energies around her began to wane, as the Dark Templar released his grip on looking deep into her mind and memories.

"It is done, James Raynor," Ataldis announced. "My actions have allowed the female terran Nova Terra to regain the memories of her past. I can see from the expression on her that some of them were not pleasant ones to relive."

"Thanks for your help, Ataldis," Jim replied. "If you'll excuse us, I believe now is a time for recuperation for her for having those memories awakened again."

The Alysaar bowed deeply before complying, turning around and walking deeper into the Dark Templar Shrine, leaving Jim and Nova alone with their own thoughts.

* * *

**Author's Note: All right so this chapter's ending may seem a little bit off, but I was trying to explain some on Nova's character. For those of you who have read the books Starcraft Ghost: Nova and Starcraft Ghost: Spectres, I just basically crammed as much as I could of those two books from Nova's POV in there.**

**Don't forget, Nova was supposed to be the main character for the game Starcraft: Ghost, before Blizzard shelved it. She is actually a lot more complicated of a character than you may expect.**

**To Blackhole1, you and I talked it over and you had said that you had developed Nova in your fic a lot more than you thought you would. I'd like you remind you something that you may have overlooked:**

**Although the Wings of Liberty Campaign is 26 missions long, you don't actually have to play all 26 missions to beat the game. If you were only trying to beat the game as fast as you can, only 18 out of the 26 missions need to be completed. This means that you don't actually have to go to the New Folsom mission to meet up with Nova for the first time. In fact, you don't even have to go to Redstone III to meet Tosh. And in any case you only get her for one mission, assuming you even choose her.**

**On the other hand, Blizzard made it clear that she definitely has a part to play in Heart of the Swarm. This means that even if you're not going to fight alongside her, you certainly _will_ have to fight against her.**

**In additions the actions she took in Wings of Liberty aren't exactly as black and white as you think. If you had read the book Starcraft Ghost: Spectres, you would know that Tosh isn't actually the bad guy regardless of who you side with in the New Folsom branch mission. You can argue about reading the recap off the SC wikia, but those leave out smaller details that can be important, and they certainly don't capture the emotional aspect of the matter.  
**

**Nova's character will continue to be developed as the fic progresses. You're free to take whatever you want out of my fic and put it into Nova's character for yours, just acknowledge me for it and we'll call it even.  
**


	53. Chapter 53

**Author's Note: Hey guys, after more than two weeks of no updates, I decided to put this chapter up, even though I haven't fully gotten back into the writing mood yet. Again, one of the advantages in writing slightly ahead.**

**This chapter is somewhat of a followup to the previous chapter, since I revealed the whole of Nova's past with it. As Blackhole1 had pointed out to me in his review, having that much flash before your eyes in such a short time would have to hurt, and I ended the chapter before writing a reaction to how Nova would take all this, along with Raynor's reaction to seeing what Nova had experienced in her life.  
**

**To that end, I'll say this to you, Blackhole1: the part in your review you had mentioned about the possibility of being sympathetic to Tosh given what Nova had learned in her memories. Well let's put it this way: although Tosh is now dead in my fic, his actions have not been forgotten, and he will be mentioned some more as the fic goes on.  
**

**Don't forget, this was why back in chapter 19 I wrote about the plans to bust open New Folsom, which then happened in chapters 25 through 30. That was to show that Tosh wasn't the bad guy to begin with, and that what he had hoped for would still be honored, at least to an extent.  
**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 53

**Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char**

"It had taken me much effort," Ulrezaj telepathically spoke to Duran. "But I have successfully carved off the tissue sample from the Zerg beast, just as you had requested."

"You have done well for me, young Ulrezaj," Duran commented. "This sample will be among the last specimens I will require for my plans, and for our master. Contrary to what you believe, it is not about the hybrid cloning. I have something far bigger in store, once all of the pieces are in place."

"I concur with the Fallen One on this," the Dark Archon said, disgusted. "Your hybrid clones have failed to live up to the standards that had been expected of them. Without the ability to obey commands, they are near useless to us."

"That is something I am still working on," Duran assured. "In the meantime, I believe the Khaydarin Crystal shards you have seen in Kerrigan's hive could be used to further progress forward with our plans. They are your reward for your services in bringing me this sample, so I will allow you total freedom as to what to do with them."

This was something Ulrezaj took great satisfaction in. He did not see the point of coming to Char and raiding Kerrigan's hive cluster, as well as having his Tal'darim warband obtain equipment from that infested terran Command Center. The latter had come as a major surprise to him, as he simply could not understand what uses Duran could have for terran technology. Even today, terran technology was greatly inferior to that of the Protoss. While the technology of the Firstborns were theoretically advanced enough for the forging of the basic structures of the hybrids, terran technology was still ages away from accomplishing something even remotely close to such a feat.

Given his Tal'darim forces and their defeat by the hands of James Raynor, the Dark Archon knew not to underestimate the terrans, but that did not change simple facts. Duran had told him about the terran attempts to replicate the cloned hybrid at the installation called Castanar, but most of their efforts were largely unsuccessful. After James Raynor had attacked it, the hybrid clone had ended up destroying most of the facility, which impeded the terran efforts even further. All of this only reinforced Ulrezaj's belief that with the exception of a few, the majority of terrans were little more than children playing with powers completely beyond their comprehension.

As long as the terran race continued to believe the Zerg swarm is the true threat, the Dark Archon concurred with Duran and his master that they must be continued to be convinced this is the case. Yet despite his immense energies, channeling the power of mind control and bending the individual Zerg creatures to his will would drain him too quickly, and he would be left vulnerable to his enemies. Fortunately, Ulrezaj already had the perfect alternative it, and it would rely on the Khaydarin Crystals found within the hive cluster.

Unlike with Protoss technology, terran technology was far too inferior to control vast numbers of Zerg. On the other hand, he had proved much more capable of controlling the Zerg broods than any of his Nerazim Protoss brethren. This too had been in part to his actions in reading from the Wall of Knowledge at the Alys'aril Nexus. It was from this knowledge that he had learned how to create the warped versions of Khaydarin Crystals, comprised purely of Dark Templar and Zerg energies. They had clearly proven themselves to be effective at controlling the Zerg broods.

Yet his hopes that they would also be able to create genetically enhanced Zerg creatures that would be capable of resisting the effects of the Xel'Naga Temple and thus could slaughter the Khalai refugees had been dashed. Although the crystals were powerful, they still possessed one vulnerability: the psychic and Void energies of a Dark Archon. It was from this knowledge that Zeratul had ordered a Dark Archon to have all of his warped Khaydarin Crystals destroyed, and Ulrezaj thus never even discovered just how much the Dark Templar energies would have enhanced the Zerg broods.

Nevertheless, despite the loss of his Fist of Ulrezaj group, he knew such plans could still come to pass, and this relied on his Tal'darim warband. The main difference between the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss sects was the fact that the former chose to embrace the Khala while the latter embraced the Void. It was from the Void that the main source of Dark Templar energies came from. The Sundrop substance he had supplied to the Tal'darim had cut off their link to the Khala and they were embraced by the Void instead. This had allowed them to develop Dark Templar techniques just like the Nerazim tribes.

Thus the Dark Archon no longer needed his Fist of Ulrezaj group for the forging of the warped crystals, the Tal'darim had effectively replaced them. And unlike the Fist of Ulrezaj, the Tal'darim at his disposal were far greater in number and thus presented him with the opportunity to create even stronger versions of the warped crystals than before.

This time however, he would not take any chances. Despite the fact that no other Dark Archon have managed to prolong their existence like himself, this did not mean the Nerazims have completely abandoned their usage of Dark Archons. Although in recent times they have learned the technique in merging together to form Khalai Archons, they have not forgotten how to form Dark Archons in their merging.

Fortunately, the presence of the Khaydarin Crystal shards in the hive would facilitate in this plan. The previous warp crystals did not have an original Khaydarin Crystal to enhance it even further and thus proved to be much more vulnerable. This time, Ulrezaj planned to use the shards and infuse both Zerg and Tal'darim energies into it, thus creating even stronger versions of the warp crystals, so strong that no Dark Archon other than himself would have the power to shatter them.

* * *

**Dark Templar Shrine Entrance, Aiur**

Jim and Nova both sat on the front steps outside of the Dark Templar Shrine. The moments of living through several years of her dark past had badly shaken the blond ghost, and Jim was barely holding himself in check to the horrors that Nova had been subjected to.

Neither one of them said a word, but Jim knew he would have to find a way to break the silence. He knew holding it all within her was a bad idea, and he didn't want to see Nova get hurt any further. But he was also unsure of just what he could say to her that wouldn't provoke a hostile reaction from the ghost. Still at a young age, the traumas she had experienced, then wiped from her mind, but now remembered, must have taken a terrible toll on her soul.

"Nova, if I had known the details were going to be like that, I wouldn't have considered the recovery process," he said softly. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Jim," the blond ghost said quietly. "You couldn't have known this. You only wanted what was best for me, because you didn't want me living an empty life and not knowing anything about my past."

"I understand why you wanted to forget. Every one of us has our breaking points, and I can see why you chose the path of ignorance rather than accepting the truth."

"I was weak, Jim. I took the coward's way out instead of choosing to endure, something you taught your Raiders to do."

"There is also something called an endurance limit, you know. There's only so much a person can take before he or she can't stand it anymore. After what I saw, I seriously doubt I would have done any differently from what you did."

Jim gently put his hand on her shoulder. "Let it out, Nova. You've held the pain inside you for long enough with no one to speak to about it. Events like the ones you went through aren't meant to be faced alone. It's alright to show your tears to me, I won't think you're weak."

That was it for the blond ghost. After all the years of holding her emotions in, she finally let go. The walls inside her crumbled and Nova broke down sobbing on Jim's shoulder. Emotions she once felt were only signs of weakness spilled out of her, as every tear fell. Jim had been right, she never was able to endure the memory recovery process alone, it was too much. She realized now that had it not been for Jim being there, the process would have driven her to the point of suicide, just as the traumatizing events of her family's assassination had.

She cried without any control onto Jim, and for more than one event over the course of her life. She cried for her family, who she had loved more than anything else, and having been assassinated right before her eyes. She cried for all the people who had died when she unleashed her psychic scream upon witnessing the assassination, as many of them had nothing to do with it and thus became collateral damage. She cried for all the families of those people who had suffered the loss of relatives due to that psychic scream.

She cried for the people she had ended up killing during the months she spent in the Gutter due to Fagin's torture and for being a slave to that crime lord. She cried for the people who people who had suffered due to her actions from those killings.

Nova wept without any attempt to hide it, as she wept for the people she met during her early days at the Ghost Academy. She wept for all those who had tried to befriend her, and even to develop relationships with her, yet she chose to reject them all, preferring to be alone. She cried for her own decision of having her memory wiped so the past would stop haunting her, and forgetting the concepts of friendship and companionship altogether and having chosen the path of an obedient Dominion ghost instead.

For that, she cried for all the people she had assassinated in the name of the Dominion, most of which she realized now were nothing more than obstacles to Mengsk and his path to achieving greater power. She cried for all the families she had destroyed due to those assassination missions, and for all the lives she had ruined, yet did not show even the slightest sign of sympathy or guilt about it. She cried for having forgotten about them due to the constant Dominion memory wipes and checkups of the neural inhibitors implanted within her. She cried for the pains they had suffered through because of her actions.

And last, but certainly not least, she cried for Tosh. She cried for having her memory wiped during the Ghost Academy days and thus having forgotten everything he had tried to teach her. She cried for rejecting his beliefs after what he told her after the Battle of Shi, where he tried to convince her that Mengsk was corrupt and had to be removed, yet she insisted that he had gone mad. She cried for having rejected his offer when they confronted each other on Korhal, having insisted that she would remain loyal to the Dominion and to protect the emperor at all costs regardless of the circumstances, even after she had been exposed to the terrazine which undid some of her memory wipes.

Nova wept for the people who had helped her during her time of need when she had been captured by Bennett, yet afterwards she rejected them as they were disloyal to the Dominion. She wept for her betrayal to Tosh, having promised him that she would join at his side with the Spectres after Bennett's death, and then instead choosing to return to serve the Dominion instead. She cried for killing Tosh, for serving the Dominion who had corrupted her and murdering yet another man who had turned against Mengsk's empire in the name of freedom and justice.

The blond ghost wept on Jim's shoulder for more than an hour, letting her tears freely flow. She cried until her body ached, having finally let loose the emotions that she held within her. Yet she was glad for Jim to be there for her. More than anything right now, she needed someone to cry on, someone who would understand her. Sarah hadn't been wrong about Jim. Clearly he understood her much better than she thought he would.

"It's all right," he assured her, as Nova finally began to pull herself back together from the weeping. "I told you I wouldn't think you're weak from that, and that opinion hasn't changed."

"I can see you and I have more in common than I thought, Nova," a voice said.

Nova lifted her head up to see Kerrigan decloak in front of them, sitting on a nearby stone at eye level towards her and Jim.

"Sarah, how long have you been there?" Jim asked.

"Long enough," she said candidly, before turning her head sympathetically towards the blond ghost. "I was wrong about you, Nova. I honestly thought that other than Jim, no one else could have suffered through as much as I did during my time with the Zerg. I shouldn't have been so quick to judge. Clearly you didn't have a walk in the park either, and you were traumatized as much as Jim and I have been."

Nova lowered her head slightly, as she wiped away the tears. "I was weak, Sarah. Jim was right about you being stronger than me. You endured 4 years of infestation with the Zerg and countless horrors committed because of that monster, all of which you saw but couldn't do anything to intervene. I was driven to the point of suicide right after my family's murder."

"So was I back on Haven," Sarah reminded her. "Remember, it was you and Jim who helped me through all that. Both of you told me that the first steps to atonement was to fight for those who fell. If it weren't for you I probably would have gone suicidal in less than a day."

"Even so, the guilt factor is still there. That goes for both of us," Nova pointed out.

"Tell me something then," Sarah said calmly. "Now that you got all your memories back, do you _want_ to remember it all? Even I didn't experience something so traumatizing as my family killed in front of me, you know."

"Of course I do. If I don't it would just prove I'm too weak to endure."

"Then it proves you're every bit as strong as Jim and I believe you are. You told me yourself on Haven there are obviously differences between the actions you committed during your time with the Dominion and the ones I committed when I was with the Zerg. If I had chosen to have those memories erased, it would have rendered me a coward, and I would have been no better than the monster that the Xel'Naga artifact had killed."

"I saw that you had wanted to go back to your normal life, even though you knew that was no longer possible," Jim said softly. "Sarah and I both want the same thing for our own lives, and we know that's not going to happen. But it's not about going back to the way our lives once were, it's about letting everybody else live free."

"And I promised that I would fight for the liberty of others," Nova said firmly.

"Then it's the same thing you had told me back on Haven," Kerrigan replied. "Fight for them, and in time they'll see you've changed. When that happens, they'll forgive you."

Nova nodded silently, before suddenly remembering the one thing she had seen that had surprised her during the initial stages of her memory recovery process. When she saw herself as a member of the Old Families, she had seen Jim's eyes darken in anger. This was something she had only seen whenever the topic of Mengsk had been brought up during the time she spent on the Hyperion. Even the mention of the Zerg did not provoke this kind of reaction, though this was understandable as it was Mengsk who had abandoned Sarah to the Zerg. Still, she couldn't understand why there was this anger towards the Old Families, unless there was still something she didn't understand about the rebel commander just yet.

"Jim, I saw a change in your expression during that recovery process," Nova said carefully. "When you learned I was a member of the Old Families, you seemed to be angry about it. Did something go down between you and them? It seemed like you hate them and the Confederacy even more than the Zerg."

Jim clenched his fist in anger, and Nova immediately regretted asking. Clearly she had touched a nerve by bringing up an old wound from his past. However, Jim uncurled his hands and sighed. It was as if he had been expecting her to ask him all along.

"The Old Families and the Confederacy gave me the reasons to join hands with Mengsk and the Sons of Korhal in the first place," he told her. "Before you, I always thought virtually all of the Old Families were nothing but power hungry tyrants without giving the slightest consideration to the common man. They were responsible for my mother and father's death, and the Confederacy killed both my wife and son."

"What happened, Jim?" Sarah asked softly. This was something even she didn't know of him, and she knew that she had to better understand him.

Jim looked up at the sky before sighing again. "All right, I guess it's time both of you knew. It began all the way back during the Guild Wars. The Umojan Protectorate hadn't existed back then, and there was only the Confederacy and the Kel-Morian Combine."

"I remember. The Confederacy won that conflict and the Kel-Morian Combine was reduced to only a shadow of its former self."

"And the whole Confederate government became richer than ever," Jim said bitterly. "But that was just the people at the top who prospered. For the common people under the Confederacy, they gained absolutely nothing. In fact, for them all they got was more suffering."

"Your family was among them," Nova realized.

Jim nodded. "When you look at it from an economic standpoint, the Guild Wars allowed the Old Families to reap major profits from selling armaments to the Confederate Military. On the other hand, the constant spending there wreaked havoc on the Confederate agriculture, and many farmers were sent into total bankruptcy. My family on the world of Shiloh had been among the victims of Confederate greed and power lust."

"Shiloh was a Confederate fringe world," the blond ghost said softly. "I heard very little about it when I was young, other than it was among the major food source planets for the Confederacy."

"The land that my family farmed on wasn't exactly ideal, but it made a living," the rebel commander said. "When the economic strains of the Guild Wars began to be felt, my family began to suffer from its effects. It was for this reason that I had joined the Confederate Military, over the objections of my father Trace. He personally didn't want me to go down this path because he was afraid I would end up as monstrous as the Confederates did."

"You ended up just fine though," Sarah said. "You didn't treat anyone as tools or pawns for your personal gain."

"It was why Trace and my mother Karol said while they opposed me joining the military, they wouldn't stop me from doing it. All I wanted was to earn some of the money so my family would be well looked after. That's where Tychus and I first met."

"What happened?"

"Our commanding officer Javier Vanderspool turned out to be corrupt and tried to win battles for his own personal wealth gains," Jim replied. "It was why Tychus and I left the military, and we became outlaws, criminals and traitors to the Confederacy."

"Matt told me you and him got into all sorts of trouble," Nova said, in thought. "It was never about just causing havoc on the Confederacy, was it? You were still doing all this for your family's benefit."

"Except my family didn't accept any of it," Jim said quietly. "They said no matter how corrupt the Old Families are, along with the Confederacy, the money me and Tychus were hording was nevertheless blood money. That was the final message my father gave me in a holovid. He said a man is what he chooses to be. It's the choice that make the man, not how he was born or how he was raised. He said that I was going down a dark path, and this was not something he wanted for me. My father said I could always choose to be something new, and I should never forget that."

"And look at you now," Kerrigan pointed out. "You went from arch-criminal to the people's freedom fighter. I'd say you turned out more honorable than you care to admit."

"I just wished my father was alive to see it, Sarah. Because of the constant money problems caused by the Guild Wars, my family didn't have the money to spare when it came to giving the farming machines maintenance and repair. My father suffered an accident from the robo-harvester when it went completely out of control, and was sent to the hospital. But because my family had virtually been bled dry of money, the only source of money that could have saved his life was the blood money from me. He refused it, saying that it was better to die with dignity than to live in disgrace."

Nova felt a stab of guilt through her heart. After recovering her memories, she saw herself as always treating everyone in her family with kindness, but she had overlooked the common people.

"My mother Karol was the one who gave me that holovid message, on the night of her death," Jim continued, recalling the memories. "She asked me to return home to Shiloh to give me that message in the hopes that I would change my ways."

"What happened to her?" Nova asked softly, careful not to bring up any more wounds that could hurt Jim.

"Because of the constant food demands from the Confederacy in the Guild Wars, it had led to famine on Shiloh," Raynor answered. "Many of the residents ended up getting cancer because of it, my mother among them. The Confederacy created the Farm Aid program to partially assist the poor, starving and dying farmers, but for many it was already too late."

Jim turned his head to Nova. "So you see, I too understand what it's like to lose family members. True, mine were not assassinated in cold blood like yours were, but to an extent you can say they were murdered just the same. After their deaths, I blamed the Old Families for this, for having only thought of themselves and caring nothing for the common people."

"Jim, if I had known, I would have done more to help you," the blond ghost said softly.

"It's all right, you couldn't have known the details of my family back then. And I blame the Old Families only for the deaths of my mother and father. It's the Confederacy I blame for my wife and my son's death."

"I thought your son died in a shuttle accident," Sarah pointed out. "You got the letter from the Confederacy and everything."

Jim laughed humorlessly, startling her. "That was nothing but a story the Confederates made up, Sarah. John had scored high on a psionic evaluation test, which meant he was considered gifted. The Confederates wanted him to take trials to develop this potential, though I didn't want it at all. Yet Lidya felt this was good idea and so he was sent to the Tarsonis Institute of Health and Research."

"The Confederacy planned his death?" Nova asked, shocked.

Jim clenched his fist in anger. "That institute was nothing more than a cover for the Confederate recruiting school for children, Nova. If they passed the trials and tests, they would have been sent to the Ghost Program, where the Confederates would have turned them into mindless drones for their assassination missions and all that. If they failed the tests, then they would be of no further use to the Confederacy. However, they could not risk the children being sent home to tell their families of what really took place in that school, so they're simply disposed of. Since the Confederacy controlled virtually all of the media, the reporters would believe everything they tell them."

"The shuttle crash had been done on purpose," Sarah murmured. "The Confederacy was responsible for killing your son."

"I had suspected it, but Lidya blamed herself," Jim said. "She blamed herself for having convinced me of sending John to the institute which resulted in his death. She never recovered from the traumatizing event and the grief ended up killing her."

He paused for a moment, before continuing. "Of course, every now and then their security measures did slip up, and this was how I found out about what they really did."

"If I had known I would have done more," Nova said softly.

"All of us would have," Sarah told her. "But we can't change the past. All we can do is try to prevent the future from suffering similarly."

"I wanted the voices in my head to stop, but I should have just endured," the blond ghost said glumly. "Both of you suffered more than I did and you didn't choose the memory wipe option."

"After seeing those memories, I doubt we went through any more hell than you did," Jim replied. "Regardless, you took it a lot better than I had expected."

"So we'll now be returning our revolution to the Dominion now?"

"In time," the rebel commander assured. "Once Aiur is fully cleared of the Zerg, the Protoss will be helping us in our endeavors. When that happens, we'll finally have the strength necessary to bring down Mengsk's corrupt government once and for all."


	54. Chapter 54

**Author's Note: Hey guys, with work picking up, it hasn't been easy to find the time to write, but I was able to get this chapter ready regardless. I looked over the previous chapters and saw that despite introducing Felanis all the way back in chapter 20 and 21, I haven't really given much thought on him. Granted he isn't a main character in my fic, but I still feel he needs to be explained a little bit more. In addition he hadn't been mentioned since back in chapter 44, so I decided to bring him back into the picture again here.**

**This chapter will tie in a little bit with the end of chapter 50 when I introduced Mira Han back into the fic, and it'll foreshadow of events to come.  
**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 54

**Aiur**

Felanis watched from a distance as the Tal'darim survivors on Aiur were taken into the custody of the Daelaam Protoss. Many of the High Templars had assured him that they would do everything in their power to break the addiction to Sundrop and restore their links to the Khala as quickly as possible. This signaled a change in the Protoss hierarchy of order.

In the past, when it came to matters of beliefs and traditions, it had all been ruled by the Judicator Caste, something Felanis himself had been a part of before the fall of Aiur to the Zerg swarm. The vast majority of the High Templar warriors were thus unable to take part in such ruling governs. Now, with the dissolution of the Conclave and the unification of the Khalai and Nerazim sects, the picture had changed. The High Templars were able to now take on the role of leaders and mentors for their people.

Although there was still no sign that the Tal'darim warriors would join hands with the Daelaam Protoss, Felanis was glad that they were at least willing to listen to reason and allow their Khala links to be restored. The High Templars had made it clear to him that once the link is restored, it would be their choice to listen to anything more the Khalai and Nerazim templars would have to say.

Unfortunately, as Felanis saw very quickly, the unification of the Protoss sects still had its share of problems, as not all Protoss were ready to accept the union, or even reality in some instances. The Ara Tribe leader Nahaan did not go with the High Templars to escort the Tal'darim away, but had chosen to remain behind with Felanis, and the former Tal'darim leader had his suspicions.

Like Nahaan, Felanis too had been part of the Ara Tribe before Aiur had fallen to the Zerg. As such, he had also experienced the sheer amount of power the Conclave had wielded during their 3000 years as the Protoss ruling body. The Conclave had been part of the Judicator Assembly, which was dominated by the Ara Tribe, and there were many cases where Protoss from other tribes felt that this power had in turn corrupted the Ara Tribe, making their members snide and arrogant towards others.

Even so, the massive fleets the Ara Tribe had at its disposal had easier made it the most powerful Protoss tribe during its day. Yet in the aftermath of Aiur's fall, the tribe had been reduced to only a shadow of its former self. With its power base destroyed and the Conclave dissolved, the Ara Tribe's power had been weakened to only a fragment of the former glorious days. Despite the efforts to rebuild its strength during the time spent on Shakuras, the Ara Tribe was never able to recover from the devastating blow the Zerg had inflicted upon them on Aiur.

Yet Felanis saw the addiction to power and ruling was proving every bit as corruptive to the Protoss as it is to the terrans, according to Artanis. According to the reports of the High Templars of the Akilae, Shelak, Auriga, and Furinax Tribes, the Ara Tribe had proved to be extremely difficult to control and satisfy during the 4 years of relative quiet before the Zerg invasion. This of course had not been too surprising, as the Ara Tribe had been used to possessing the vast majority of the power within the Protoss civilization. Clearly, not all of them were ready to let go of that power just yet.

Nahaan had argued to him that the current Protoss Hierarchy was simply too slow and inefficient, but Felanis knew the real message hidden behind the Ara Tribe leader's words: he was hoping to gather support to return the Protoss leadership back to the way it was during the rule of the Conclave.

However, this was something Felanis was not prepared to support. Although there was no denying the fact that the Conclave was swift and able to take action on events quickly in comparison to the Hierarchy, the fact remained that during the rule of the Conclave, there were few cases where individual Protoss had questioned their actions, let alone defied them. This had led the Conclave to develop a mentality in which they simply refused to believe they could be in error about anything, which led to Aiur's fall at the hands of the Zerg.

Thus it was the Conclave's pride that had reduced Felanis and the other Protoss survivors to be stranded on Aiur with billions of Zerg in the first place, and the former Tal'darim leader had no intention of having history repeat itself a second time. From the way Nahaan was pressing his message towards him, it would appear that the Ara Tribe has not yet learned from its past mistakes.

"The Ara Tribe had acknowledged the errors of its ways when there had been clear proof of the destruction of the Zerg Cerebrates by the Dark Templar," Nahaan explained. "It was clear from that point on that we needed to listen to the perspectives of other Protoss as well."

"Yet from what the other Protoss tribes have informed me, it would appear that in many cases, you were skeptical about their perspectives and believed only yours were the correct ones," Felanis replied.

"You must understand that even though the Ara Tribe no longer holds the seat of power it once did, the past experience and knowledge still holds weight in the discussions within the Hierarchy. The Akilae and Auriga Tribes are part of the Templar Caste, and the Furinax Tribe is part of the Khalai Caste. During the reign of the Conclave, it was why we had made the executive, legislative, judicial, and religious Protoss laws while the other tribes simply obeyed."

"And you wish for the Hierarchy to revert to this form of ruling body?"

"I simply wish for the Ara Tribe to have a greater say in the matter of events the Hierarchy discusses than Artanis would allow," Nahaan said. "When it comes to politics, the Akilae, Auriga, and Furinax Tribes are still inexperienced and this ends up hampering their decisions for the task at hand. The Ara Tribe has had ages of experience and it would be a greater benefit to the Hierarchy to draw upon that experience. In many cases of discussion, Tabrenus usually does not speak his own mind on the matter because such opinions are beyond Furinax Tribe's ability to comprehend."

"And what of the Shelak Tribe? They may not have dominated the Judicator Caste as the Ara Tribe did but they too were part of it," Felanis pointed out.

"The Shelak Tribe has too great an associate to the Xel'Naga. The Ara Tribe was its enemy during the Aeon of Strife, but Khas's actions had discovered the Khala and thus ended the conflict. If you remember, it was this reason that the Conclave had allowed the Shelak Tribe to continue to study their ancient texts in the hopes the judicators could expand their knowledge through the Khala."

"What does this have to do with their perspectives in the Hierarchy?"

"The major weakness of the Shelak Tribe is that its desire for knowledge blinds it to more pressing matters that the Daelaam Protoss face. Even after the Brood War and the desolation of our fleets, the Shelak Tribe had turned their attention to the massive Xel'Naga Temple on Shakuras. Despite the impending threat of the Zerg, the Shelak Tribe had chosen to form the Guardians of the Xel'Naga Temple of Shakuras instead, and had constantly sought out Protoss from other tribes to join in their cause for continued knowledge of the Xel'Naga. The other tribes had worked hard to restore the great fleets, but much of the Shelak Tribe had chosen not to join us in such an endeavor. Had it not been for the years of peace that we had been granted, their traditions in constantly seeking Xel'Naga knowledge would have left us in a far more vulnerable position."

"And you believe the Ara Tribe would have been able to convince them otherwise had you had greater flexibility in the Hierarchy?"

Nahaan nodded. "With multiple viewpoints, many times conflicting with one another, the Hierarchy is simply too inefficient to take action quickly. The Ara Tribe has been looked down upon due to our inability to change our views of the Dark Templar tribes during the Zerg invasion of Aiur. However, as Mohandar is now a member of the Hierarchy, I will no longer do such a thing. Nevertheless, with regards to the recent Xel'Naga prophecy, we must take action quickly, lest our race be consumed once more by the Zerg."

"That may not be entirely possible right now," Felanis pointed out. "According to Zeratul, the prophecy remains unclear. Not all of the details are known to us, and thus we must understand more about it. The Shelak Tribe would be of great assistance in that matter."

"And what of afterwards? There has been much resentment towards allowing the Queen of Blades to live amongst my Ara Tribe, yet there is none within the Hierarchy who is willing to take my view that she should be executed immediately."

"The survival of the entire Protoss race hangs in the balance, Nahaan. Unlike yourself, the Hierarchy was simply unwilling to take the risk of losing everything."

"Perhaps, but what of afterwards?" Nahaan asked. "After everything she had done to our people, why should she be allowed to live? Although many Protoss currently are in consensus that she would be sentenced once she has served her purpose, but there are a select few who seem to be thinking the unthinkable: forgiving the Queen of Blades for her atrocities against our race."

"Has she been able to influence them that much?"

"The terran James Raynor is attempting to make them see otherwise. Despite being a hero to the Protoss, the fact remains that he has very strong feelings for Kerrigan even today, and it is interfering with his rational thought. He had convinced the rest of the Hierarchy to give the wretched creature the benefit of the doubt so that she would be able to prove herself to be a worthy ally. We had already done this during the Brood War, even though I had been against the idea, and I had been proved correct at the end. She is a creature of manipulation and deception, her actions on Aiur right now are nothing more than a facade in order for us to lower our guard against her. If we do, she will strike at us again."

"Yet I had been informed that she had allowed the Protoss to look into her mind to search for any traces of deception. Zeratul had found none, so do you believe you know better?"

"After what she had done to Raszagal, the truth is there is no telling the extent of her psionic powers," the Ara Tribe leader explained. "The possibility that she had manipulated Zeratul and the other Hierarchy Protoss cannot be factored out. The Protoss have suffered enough at her hands in her insatiable lust for power. I for one will not stand by to see this happen again."

"None of us do," Felanis assured. "But I am in consensus with the other members of the Hierarchy in that none of us know what she was like before she became the Queen of Blades. You had stated yourself that there have been relatively few Protoss encounters with female terrans and as such, the truth of the matter is we do not know enough to pass judgment on them as a whole."

"Even so, the former Queen of Blades is not like them. There is still Zerg blood that course through her veins, which is a clear indication that the ancient Xel'Naga relic did not fully purge her as James Raynor had expected. Nor did he factor in the possibility that the Xel'Naga artifact's effect may only be temporary, and Kerrigan could be slowly reverting back to the Queen of Blades even as we speak."

"According to the Observer reports, there is no longer any indication that she has control over the Zerg anymore. The vicious creatures had attacked her just as it attacked the Protoss and terran forces during the assault on the Overmind's husk."

"That does not mean she has truly lost control over them," Nahaan countered. "This could all still be part of her deception plan to fool us into thinking this way. It was entirely possible that she had realized the Zerg forces nestled around the Overmind were outnumbered by the Protoss and terrans, and thus she knew that even if she took control of them, it was a battle they could not win. Had they been greater in number, she may have done very differently."

"After the Zerg invasion of our homeworld, there had remained some 5 billion Zerg on Aiur," Felanis said. "Despite the vast numbers of Protoss dead, there were still many isolated pockets of Protoss survivors across the planet. During that time, Kerrigan was firmly in control of the Zerg swarm. Yet as time passed, the Zerg had stopped targeting us, and had stopped hunting the Protoss survivors down altogether."

"That does not mean the Queen of Blades had grown weary of slaughter," Nahaan reasoned. "Perhaps she had ordered the Zerg to stop their killing rampage in order to set up a trap in the event the Protoss fleets returned to reclaim Aiur. It is something I had been attempting to allow the Hierarchy to see: that Kerrigan must never be trusted and should be executed immediately so our race will survive. Yet so far, I have achieved little success among both Khalai and Nerazim Protoss alike."

"With regards to her sentencing once she has done her part, I am in agreement," the former Tal'darim leader said. "The Protoss survivors on Aiur have suffered far more than those who had fled to the safety of Shakuras. The constant living with the threat of the Zerg proved to be extremely difficult, and it was exactly why there were relatively few cases of large survivor groups, as such a sight would undoubtedly attract the attention of the Zerg. However to have her executed immediately is something I will not agree to. The Xel'Naga prophecy must be factored in."

"Zeratul does not even know how she will save us all from impending Armageddon, assuming the prophecy is even true," Nahaan scoffed. "And Kerrigan herself has shown resentment towards the prophecy. She resents at having been chosen the role of the savior and wishes to have no part in any of this. It only further reinforces the task of all Protoss to prove the prophecy false so that we can finally bring her to justice for all of the atrocities she had committed to our people."

"And what if the prophecy is true? Would you still seek out retribution against the wishes of the other Protoss?"

"I shall never be deceived by her," Nahaan declared. "The Ara Tribe has had greater experience in dealing with the matters of right and wrong, far more than the other tribes. We know what is the right thing to do for our people."

Felanis shook his head. "You still see yourself as the great ruling body of the Protoss, Nahaan. That time has passed, and your tribe's power is no longer absolute. It is time you and the Ara Tribe accept that."

"What happened to you, Felanis? You used to be one of the great Ara Tribe Judicators."

"When the last Warp Gate had been disabled and the remaining Protoss were left stranded on Aiur, it did not take long for the groups of survivors to realize that power and authority meant very little compared to fending ourselves from the Zerg swarm."

"Aldaris had conceded the same thing after the destruction of the Overmind," Nahaan admitted. "The loss of the Conclave's leadership along with the great fleets had forced a rethinking in strategy."

"The difference is you had the fortunes to escape to Shakuras in relative safety," Felanis explained. "For the Protoss that remained on Aiur, it soon became clear to us that whatever petty differences we possessed needed to be set aside very quickly if we were to survive the Zerg rampage. Initially, gathering survivors proved to be difficult due to the presence of the Zerg. However as time passed, it had become clear to us that the death of the Overmind had clearly caused the Zerg swarm to be thrown into disarray, and they were no longer as effective at hunting us as before."

"It was only temporary," Nahaan said angrily. "Following the Brood War, the Queen of Blades gained control of the entire swarm, and the Zerg became deadlier than ever before."

"Perhaps, but it still did not change the fact that the Zerg on Aiur had suddenly stopped targeting us. Thus the formation of the Shel'na Kryhas became a much simpler task. Despite the need for leadership within the newly forged tribe, it was clear to most of the Protoss survivors that the leadership during the days of the Conclave must never be repeated. Despite Judicator experience, Protoss survivors that were from the Ara Tribe were despised, but nevertheless incorporated into the tribe. Our resources were slender, and we had to make do with what we had to survive."

"Artanis, Selendis and Zeratul had discovered you during their return trip to Aiur," the Ara Tribe leader pointed out. "And yet they chose to abandon you to your fate."

"It is something many of the Tal'darim still hold against them," Felanis agreed. "Even so, the Shel'na Kryhas had a very different hierarchy status compared to the Conclave. The roles of the Judicators were taken away, and the role of the templar became crucial to our survival. More than half of the Shel'nas Kryhas came from the Furinax Tribe and thus did not have the warrior experience of the templar brethren. It was left to the templar survivors to better train them in order to survive against the Zerg."

"It must have not been something to be taken with pride, the mighty Protoss race reduced to a mere facade of an individual few survivors, hiding themselves from the vicious creatures."

"No, but as time went on, even the former Judicators within the Shel'na Kryhas had learned to cope with their situation. They had seen quickly that the ways of the Conclave would have led the tribe to destruction had they been implemented. It is for this reason that while I support your belief that perhaps the Ara Tribe may be allowed a greater say within the Protoss Hierarchy, I will not support your idea of the Ara Tribe coming to dominate the Hierarchy just as it had the Judicator Caste."

Nahaan nodded. It wasn't the answer he had hoped for, but it was certainly a starting point. Felanis did not support his idea that Kerrigan was to be executed immediately for her crimes, but at least he was in agreement that she would be sentenced to death once she had played her role.

Now all that was left was the Xel'Naga prophecy. It was for this reason that he had offered as many of his Ara Tribe Protoss as he could in assisting the Daelaam Protoss in clearing the remaining Zerg from Aiur. Once they were gone, the way would be clear to the Overmind's husk and further clues about the prophecy. If it could be proven false, the Queen of Blades would die by his hand, and James Raynor would not stand in his way of seeking out justice on behalf of the Protoss, Khalai and Nerazim alike.

* * *

**Raiders Base, Aiur**

Matt Horner was not happy to see the face of his wife on the communicator console screen. He was a fighter for freedom and justice, not some mercenary who kills for profit or personal gains like Mira. Although technically the Raiders had been declared a mercenary and terrorist organization by the Dominion for years, he knew there were other people in the Koprulu Sector that knew otherwise.

Mira's mercenary force, on the other hand, was a completely different matter. Just being stationed on Dead Man's Rock was enough for the young captain to frown at. With millions of pirates and mercenaries stationed on the planet, it was a far cry from an authoritative world. To Matt, the whole planet was nothing but a breeding ground for criminals, terrorists, and murderers. He saw no place for them in the future as they have no understanding of order and are extremely resistant to authority.

There had been many instances where he had regretted coming to Dead Man's Rock in the first place a while back, where he won the poker game against the people there and thus had been forced to marry Mira. It was exactly the reason why he had made virtually no effort to contact her since, even though the marriage documents she had kept with her confirmed the legality of the marriage. Despite distancing himself from her, Matt always knew at some point their paths would cross again.

This was something he had been dreading after they departed Dead Man's Rock after retrieving the Confederate Adjutant. Despite their revolution against Mengsk in toppling the Dominion as well as having to deal with the Zerg invasion, Matt knew at some point down the road he would have to deal with his wife again, as even the Raiders' revolution could not last forever.

Nevertheless, he continued to have much contempt for Mira. Her forces had proved to be ruthless when assisting the Raiders in defeating Orlan, slaughtering more than half of his mercenaries without giving a second thought. Not that he felt those mercs deserved any better, but it only showed that Mira's army was no better than the Dominion, her soldiers composed completely of psychopathic and cold blooded serial killers.

To that end, he took pleasure in seeing Mira having to turn to a set of emotions he thought she didn't possess in her when speaking to him, asking him and his Raiders for assistance.

"Matthew, is this any way to treat your wife?" she asked sweetly. "I know we haven't been married for too long and there was always the distance problem, but I thought you knew better."

"And you should know better when it comes to our goals," he shot back, disgusted. "I'm not the type of person who kills anyone I feel like just to earn some credits."

"Your Raiders despise authority, just like myself. Why else would you have kept up the fighting against the Dominion for so long?"

"It just shows to your shortsightedness, Mira," the captain said angrily. "The Raiders don't have the goal of destroying entire authoritative governments, just the ones that suppress the freedom and liberty of others."

The pink haired woman on screen rolled her one eye, as her other red cybernetic eye could not. "Even you cannot be so foolish as to believe there's such thing as a government that is completely selfless, Matthew. You really think any authority would have that kind of devotion?"

"Maybe not," Matt agreed. "But as mercenaries, you know more about the Dominion government than the regular Dominion citizens. You know Mengsk doesn't do anything to benefit his people. All he cares about is personal power, and constantly strives to achieve more for himself. He doesn't care about others in times of need unless he too can stand to benefit from it, and even then it takes quite a bit of persuasion."

"And what do you call the Kel-Morian Combine?" Mira pressed. "They practice slavery, yet your Raiders never made any attempt against them."

"The difference is quite simple. Despite that practice, the Kel-Morians still see them as human beings, not just expendable assets. The Dominion on the other hand is a completely different matter. You really think Mengsk cares about anyone other than himself and his well being?"

"Of course not," Mira answered. "And that is why I was enthusiastic when you came to Dead Man's Rock in our goal to wreak havoc on the Dominion. You should have stayed, Matthew. We would have made a good team."

Matt snorted. "With you? I think not. You're mercenaries, not bound to any cause except in terms of wealth. You really expect me to believe you couldn't be bought by another contractor?"

"We're married, Matthew. I'd say that contract right there holds some weight."

"All right, suppose that's true. Even then, the weight only goes so far. You said it yourself last time the Raiders came to Dead Man's Rock: you would have sided with Orlan if he handed you the payment first. Was I really suppose to believe a piece of marriage paper would have made you refuse his contract?"

"Please," Mira said calmly. "I like you much better than him, and that would have been true regardless of the marriage. Why else did you think I gave you and Raynor the offer for my services in the first place?"

"Even so we still had to pay up the mineral price for that," Matt answered, frowning. "In case you forgot, a revolution against the Dominion isn't exactly cheap. That payment might not have meant much to you, but it was a hell of a lot to the Raiders and could have helped us a lot better in funding our revolution."

"Maybe so," the female mercenary said. "But at the end of the day, I'd say it was worth it. Contrary to what you may think, I am not ignorant when it comes to authoritative plight. I saw what had happened to the Dominion worlds ever since your broadcasts on Korhal."

"Which is why I see no reason to come to this party of yours, Mira. So the Dominion is angry that you helped us in the endeavor. The Raiders are the real threat to them, not you."

"Your Raiders are far from all powerful, Matthew. Even you need allies from other worlds to keep your rebellion going. Don't forget, I did more than my share of helping you, and the Dominion didn't shatter as you hoped it would in the aftermath of the Korhal broadcasts."

"She's right, Matt," a voice said. Matt turned his head to see Jim enter the command room with Sarah and Nova. "You can deny it all you want, but the fact is Mira played a role in what we accomplished on Korhal also."

"How do you figure that? Our forces did all the work," Matt shot back.

"You really think Mengsk would be dumb enough to let our ships penetrate to his planet's surface without a fight? The Dominion fleet would have decimated our ships before we could have come anywhere near," Jim replied. "The only reason why we got a base up and running near the UNN Studios was because that was where the Dominion planned to film the Odin walker."

"It's one of the reasons I like this guy," Mira said. "Don't forget Matthew, it was I who gave you the schedule about when that filming was going to take place, and it was I who gave you the location of the Odin walker at the Valhalla installation. The information your adjutant may have been valuable, but until you made it known to the public, it was useless to you."

Jim watched as Matt sighed in frustration, conceding defeat, before speaking up again, "Now Mira, what's the problem on your end?"

"There's Dominion ships holding in orbit around Dead Man's Rock. Since this is a lawless planet and the Dominion has almost never made any attempts to try and bring it under its control, I'd say the plausible answer is they're here to eliminate my mercenary force and retrieve Orlan, who I still have on ice, as you requested."

"What do you need us for? Your forces are sizable now that you added Orlan's troops to your own," Jim pointed out.

"And if I beat them off, the Dominion will just send another strike force here, Raynor. Don't forget, the Dominion has more than enough resources at its disposal to replace its losses with relative ease. On the other hand, every ship and vehicle I lose to them could take months to replace, there's no way I can beat them in a battle of attrition. The only way to get the Dominion to think twice is with your assistance. They need to be convinced that my mercs and your Raiders are still in an alliance and will help each other in times of need."

"I understand, Mira," Jim said. "I will send some of my boys to Dead Man's Rock as soon as possible."

"Don't take too long," the female mercenary said. "The Dominion ships could be ready to attack any minute now."

Jim nodded, before shutting off the communicator. Matt stared at him in shock.

"Sir, what are you doing? You're going to send fine soldiers to their deaths just to help some cutthroats?"

"One way or another we need to finish our revolution against Mengsk, Matt. You know even with Warfield's forces and our recruits from New Folsom, we're still not strong enough to defeat the Dominion. We need more allies, and an alliance with Mira would be a good place to start."

"And what price would she demand this time for our cooperation?" Matt asked, disgusted.

"One that's worth it in the end," Raynor answered. "I think I can find a perfect task for Mira's forces in helping us cripple the Dominion for good."


	55. Chapter 55

**Author's Note: Hey guys, the next chapter is here. I have to say, writing this fic has certainly been a wonderful experience. After more than 100,000 hits, I would like to thank everyone who has read and reviewed my fic, you guys have been great.**

**For those of you who had read the book Starcraft Ghost: Spectres, there will be elements of that book tied into this fic as well. If you haven't, well I'll try to put what I can to tie it into my fic as well.  
**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 55

**Raiders Base, Aiur**

"The losses we've sustained in helping the Protoss break the last major Zerg concentration on their world are substantial," Warfield reported to Raynor over the communicator console. "We may have won the battle thanks to your Protoss buddies unleashing their biggest warships I've seen, but it's going to take some time to make good the losses in men and material here."

"You'll have plenty of that, general," Jim assured. "The Protoss won't be needing our help to clear the remaining Zerg from Aiur, so this will be the perfect time for a little rest and relaxation for most of us."

"Will you be turning your sights back to dealing with Mengsk soon?"

"More than likely. By now I'm sure Mengsk has gotten all the rioting on the Dominion worlds quieted down and will have some plan in mind to regain control over the situation."

"Then I recommend we turn our sights back to Tarsonis again, Raynor."

"Why there?" Jim asked.

"The Dominion have been conducting constant salvaging operations there in the hopes to restore the planet to its former glory before it was completely ravaged by the Zerg," Warfield answered. "Your actions in stealing the Confederate adjutant from them is not going to change their minds about further salvaging. Before my recall to duty, Mengsk had made it clear that the whole of Tarsonis must be thoroughly searched in the event of further Confederate military secrets and technologies. Don't forget, the Dominion had discovered the Diamondback hover-tanks on Tarsonis just as your Raiders did, and it had been incorporated into their arsenal as well for mass production."

"Maybe so, but after the stunt I pulled off last time, it's not going to be as easy a second time," Jim replied.

"Even so, your actions had weakened Mengsk from his throne, and when I was off counting our losses sustained by the Zerg, one of my officers had intercepted an encoded Dominion transmission. It appears another Dominion battle group has been sent down to Tarsonis to conduct another salvaging operation."

"You think it if we seize it, it can weaken the Dominion even more?"

"No one knows for sure," the general answered. "All I know for a fact is that the battle group is relatively small, not suited for prolonged battle. It is stronger than the Dominion forces that restored power to the rail network, however. This would suggest that they're expecting you to raid them again, which would imply whatever they're trying to dig up is vital to the Dominion and they can't afford for it to fall into the Raiders' hands."

Jim nodded. With the addition of Warfield's forces and the liberated prisoners from New Folsom, the Raiders are now much stronger than just a handful of volunteers prior to the Zerg invasion. Besides, he had experience with stealing from the Confederacy during his years spent with Tychus, so stealing from the Dominion should be very similar.

Besides, with the threat of Armageddon looming over the horizon, the commander felt it may be necessary to unite the whole of the terran race against it in order to survive. For that reason, Mengsk has to go as quickly as possible so there would be no interferences from petty internal power struggles. If what Warfield said was true, then success here would drive another nail into Mengsk's coffin.

"All right general," he said finally. "I'll send some of our ships to Tarsonis to acquire what the Dominion are looking for there."

"If all goes well, it could set the stage for another Dominion riot on the Core Worlds," Warfield said proudly. "Mengsk may have been able to wiggle out of it last time, no way he's going to be able to do it twice."

* * *

**Dominion Command Center, Bel'Shir**

General Madison entered the hallways of the infirmary located in the lower levels of the Command Center. Personally he disliked having been called away from the Dominion troops on the frontline, as every gunman was needed in the event of a Protoss attack. He did not even understand why the doctors had contacted him in the first place. He never understood anything specific with regards to medical equipment. Had it been the case of a wounded soldier, that would have been another story, but the doctors had made it clear that wasn't the case.

As he walked down the hallway, one of the Dominion doctors greeted him. "General, we're glad you're here."

"So what's this all about?" Madison asked. "I don't see any reason for me being here. There hasn't been any fighting since we've landed on Bel'Shir again, so it's not like there'd be any casualties. Unless of course you're here to tell me that the ghost agents are not recovering the way they're supposed to."

"That's not the case, sir. Despite the psionic exhaustion they experienced from opening the terrazine altars, the ghosts are doing just fine. They're all in a reasonably healthy condition and as long as they're given enough time to rest, they will all fully recover and be ready to go back into the field."

"Then what's the problem?" the general asked. "No one has died yet, so everything should be just fine."

"There hasn't been any casualties yet," the doctor agreed. "But there could potentially be. The medical team called you here because we feel you might know something about this terrazine substance."

"I don't know anything about that," Madison explained. "All Mengsk told me was that this gas will be vital to his plan in regaining control and putting an end to the Dominion unrest across the Core Worlds."

"After what happened here, I'm beginning to think the emperor is playing with something he doesn't fully understand, and that might be dangerous."

"What do you mean?"

"One of harvesting teams was bringing back a terrazine canister back to the Command Center. According to the SCV pilots and marine unloaders, everything was going well until one of the marines got a little sloppy and didn't support the canister weight properly. The canister fell to the ground, and when the men picked it back up, it had cracked just a little."

"Was any terrazine lost?" the general asked.

"Maybe a few drops," the doctor replied. "But that's not what's relevant here. The point is one of the marines opened his suit visor and inhaled the substance. It wasn't much, but it had an immediate effect on him, very similar to the stimpacks that marines use on the battlefield."

Madison paused in thought as the doctor continued, "As you know, the stimpack is an in-field chemical delivery system that is built into the combat suits of terran infantrymen. The stimulants they contain are commonly used by the military because person using it will benefit in terms of increased speed, reflexes, muscle density, and combat effectiveness. It does have the drawbacks of tissue damage, and that is why medics stay close to the infantry when something like that happens."

"So the terrazine substance is doing the same thing to that marine?"

"It's doing far worse than that, sir. Whatever this substance is, it seems to be far more potent than any stimulant we know when it comes to the side effects. Stimulants are supposed to be addictive, but that requires prolonged usage of it. On the other hand, the marine in the infirmary is screaming for more of this terrazine substance after inhaling just a tiny bit of it. The addiction effect is far greater than any stimulant the Dominion possess."

"Drug addictions are breakable, doctor."

"Terran made ones," the doctor corrected. "This terrazine is clearly not of terran origin, as we don't know what it's doing to that marine. He's clearly becoming extremely violent, and we had to sedate him so that he wouldn't start attacking medical personnel."

"Why would he do that?" Madison asked. "Dominion marines may be mostly taken from the prisons, but they're not stupid. Even they can tell the difference between friend and foe. The stimulants do have the ability to change that due to experience of mania, but that requires prolonged exposure to take effect."

"As I said, this terrazine substance is far more effective than that. What takes years of exposure from terran stimulants, terrazine seems to be able to do the same thing in mere seconds. Fortunately it's only one marine, and we have the situation under control for now."

Madison shook his head, clearly unhappy about the news. It was bad enough that their forces were already greatly understrength and were in no position to deal with concentrated Protoss attacks. Thus it was vital for everyone to remain as stealthy as possible in order to avoid detection.

If the doctor was right and this terrazine had all of the drawbacks of the stimulants, then exposure to it would affect the infantrymen's individual thoughts and judgments. This would make it extremely easy for some of them to act stupidly, and thus give away their positions to the Protoss.

"Do you think it's just him, or would the terrazine affect everyone else the same way?" the general asked.

"My theory is the terrazine would probably affect everyone differently," the doctor answered. "After all, no two terrans ever react to stimulants in the exact same way, and so far the terrazine seems to be having similar effects to the stims, just at a much more accelerated rate. Still, with most stims we see people having their mental judgment impaired after prolonged exposure, and thus terrazine can do the same thing. I don't think it's a good idea to put to the test how the terrazine would affect others."

Madison nodded in agreement. "Continue monitoring that marine's behavior, doctor. Maybe we can learn more about the terrazine substance that way. Prolonged exposure to stimulants means it could take years to break the addiction, let's hope terrazine doesn't follow the same path once you're deprived of it."

"The medical personnel will continue to monitor him until we feel he's back to normal, sir," the doctor replied. "In the meantime though, may I make a suggestion?"

"Of course," Madison nodded.

"I suggest you pull up some classified Dominion files in the past, general. I have a gut feeling there's more to the picture than we know. The emperor didn't tell you anything specific for coming to Bel'Shir for the terrazine harvesting, after all. I'm sure he would have told you that this is on a need-to-know basis and you didn't need to know, but after seeing what the terrazine does, I think we all need some more answers."

"You think Mengsk is hiding something from us about this terrazine?"

"All I know is that while the emperor is a difficult man to read, he wouldn't have sent all of us here and then kept us in the dark unless there's something he doesn't want us to find out. You know how this works, sir. The Dominion high command issues orders without giving any specifications, and the soldiers on the ground follow them, plain and simple. The picture isn't revealed to the soldiers until the higher ups feel the time is right, and in some cases the soldiers that did all the fighting and sacrifice are _never_ told the picture at hand."

"Even if I ask the emperor about this, he's still going to say it's not something for me to know, doctor."

"And that's why I recommend you find some files on your own, sir. We need more information about this terrazine, and I have a feeling the emperor already has some idea what it really does."

"That'd be disobeying an order from the emperor, and few people can do that without facing the consequences."

"With all due respect general, you already disobeyed an order from him when you ordered us to evacuated the moon of Bel'Shir even though he had expected you to stay there and fight it out. It's just a little information to see the Dominion has encountered this terrazine substances before, it's not anything unreasonable."

Madison sighed. "I'll do what I can, doctor, but I can't promise anything. In the meantime, please keep me updated on any and all behavioral changes on the marine. We need to know what we're dealing with here."

* * *

**Tal'darim Base, Char**

The Tal'darim warriors bowed in obedience as Ulrezaj returned to their established base on Char. None of them questioned his actions, as they firmly believed that his actions were something they would not be able to understand. Nevertheless, many of them showed surprise when they saw their Xava'tor carrying the fragments of Khaydarin Crystals with him.

"It is a further sign that the Zerg swarm has continued to strengthen just as we are," Ulrezaj told them. "The Protoss on Aiur had foolishly believed that only the Firstborns would be able to harness the power of these sacred artifacts that the Xel'Naga had left behind. It had proved to be a fatal mistake for countless numbers of them."

"Their pride blinded them, mighty Xava'tor," a High Templar stated. "The Tal'darim would never have ruled out such a possibility, however slight it may be."

The Dark Archon was impressed by their ability to listen to reason and logic, but he knew there was still a ways to go before the Tal'darim would be able to become the warriors he pictured.

Despite their corruption due to the Sundrop substance, the fact remained that all of the Tal'darim were once Khalai Protoss. While the substance had cut off their link to the Khala, it did not change the fact that unlike the Dark Templar who never embraced the Khala, the Tal'darim once did.

Thus despite being embraced by the Void now and developing Dark Templar techniques, the Tal'darim were still a long way from fully becoming Nerazims themselves. For instance, although some of the individual Tal'darim are able to cloak just like the Dark Templar can, the Tal'darim cloak is not as effective as it is not permanent. As a result, the cloaking technique was not something that could be fully taken advantage of during the heat of battle.

A far more important matter is with regards to the Khaydarin Crystals. Although Ulrezaj knew that there were few Nerazims today that are aware of how to use the sacred Khaydarin Crystals for memory storage, none of them had ever forgotten about Alys'aril Nexus on Ehlna. The Sanctuary of Wisdom was simply too valuable to any Dark Templar to forget, as it housed the entire recorded history of the Nerazims.

However, the Tal'darim knew of no such thing as they were all Khalai Protoss once. They understood nothing of the ways of using the Khaydarin Crystals to preserve Dark Templar knowledge. It was for this reason that the Nerazims placed a far greater priority in locating the sacred artifacts of the Xel'Naga.

As such, the Dark Templar tribes had gained greater knowledge and understanding about the Khaydarin Crystals compared to their Khalai brethren. Ulrezaj had quickly learned that it was for this reason that the Khalai Protoss had often turned to Nerazim expertise when it came to the restoration of the Protoss military might against future conflicts with the Zerg swarm.

This was not to say the Tal'darim Protoss before him were useless in understanding the Khaydarin Crystals he had brought to the base, but the Khalai Protoss were far too used to working with larger Khaydarin Crystals which are then carved into smaller crystals and used for their ships, weapons, and buildings. There were very few cases of working with mere crystal shards and actually assembling them into the larger form necessary to provide sufficient power to Protoss structures and spacecraft.

For this reason the Dark Archon was unsure if the Tal'darim had the knowledge necessary to assemble the shards together to re-forge the Khaydarin Crystals. They were not needed at all in order to create the warped Khaydarin Crystals, but they proved too vulnerable to him in the past and Ulrezaj had no intention of repeating the same mistake.

Nevertheless, this was a matter that could at least be addressed later. The immediate priority was the matter of refinement. Due to the experimentations the shards had been subjected to by the Queen of Blades, there was no telling what sort of impurities the Zerg biomass had done to them. Ulrezaj had long since knew the Khaydarin Crystals were capable of enhancing the Zerg every bit as much as they could enhance the Protoss, and Kerrigan would have devoted much of her efforts to harnessing the power of Khaydarin Crystal shards to her Zerg minions. This could mean the shards have already been tainted with Zerg energies, and the Dark Archon needed them in their purified state before the crystal assembly process could begin.

"Great one, what is thy will?" A nearby Zealot asked.

"The wretched Queen of Blades has tainted the ancient relics of the Xel'Naga," Ulrezaj replied, gesturing to the crystal shards. "In order for me to proceed forward with my plan, these Khaydarin Crystals must be purified of their Zerg essence. I entrust this task to the Tal'darim to do."

The Zealot gave a gesture of obedience, as several High Templars came forward and accepted the shards and began moving them towards the Nexus for purification.

"Another phase of my plan will require the presence of the Zerg," Ulrezaj continued. "Due to the vast numbers of Zerg on Char, this will not be an easy task as I require Zerg specimens to be captured alive."

"For what reason do you require living Zerg specimens?" Another Zealot asked. "They are our sworn enemies, only meant to be killed!"

"It is something that will have its beneficial results," the Dark Archon assured. "However, this is not something I would expect you to understand just yet. You will be informed of the nature of my plan in the future."

The Tal'darim warriors before him gave their signs of approval. "We shall begin mobilizing our forces at once to capture the Zerg specimens you require, mighty Xava'tor."

"Concentrate your efforts in capturing for me the largest and fiercest of the Zerg strains, if possible," Ulrezaj ordered. "The mightier the Zerg creatures captured, the greater my chances will be for my plan to come to fruition."

* * *

**Outskirts of the Raiders Base, Aiur**

From a distance away, the hybrid watched as some of the terran ships took off from the ground and into the sky, heading upwards towards Aiur's upper atmosphere.

Not all of the terrans had left Aiur though. When James Raynor had arrived on Aiur, some of his forces had held their position in high orbit, while others had descended down to the surface of the planet. However, when the Zerg concentration around the mass of the Overmind had been broken, the situation had changed. The terrans had quickly let down their guard, and he had seen more terran ships land on Aiur's surface. The total number of warriors James Raynor had brought with him were still insignificant compared to the number of Protoss though, and while the terrans and their weapons had gone silent after the Zerg forces around the Overmind had scattered, the Protoss had remained focused on the task at hand, and their forces continued to hunt down the remaining Zerg creatures that infested their homeworld.

Despite the fact that the remaining Zerg forces on Aiur were continuing to dwindle, the Protoss victory here was only a temporary setback, and the hybrid knew it. The Zerg creatures could all be easily replaced, the terran and Protoss warriors could not. No matter how heavily the Protoss fortify Aiur, another Zerg invasion would easily break their military might.

The only factor left was Kerrigan. The hybrid had sensed her psionic signature aboard one of the terran ships departing Aiur, and it confused him. She had come to Aiur to seek out answers from the Overmind's rotting mass and obtain further clues regarding the Xel'Naga prophecy, yet now she had left Aiur without doing so. To the hybrid, it did not seem logical.

Duran's voice suddenly spoke into his mind at that moment. "It is not something you should be concerned about, my creation. This departure will only be temporary."

"How are you so certain of this, master?"

"Only the Overmind itself holds further clues about the nature of the Xel'Naga prophecy, something even the Protoss do not fully understand. They too will intend to explore its nature once the remaining Zerg are cleared from Aiur. Similarly, Kerrigan would not dismiss this prophecy given her role in it. In time, she will return to Aiur to seek out answers. When that time comes, she will be lured right into our snare."

"That may not be easy," the hybrid pointed out. "With each passing moment, the Zerg forces on Aiur are rapidly dwindling. Even if I can find a way to gather all of them together, the broods are simply too weak to withstand the might of the Protoss fleets now."

"You need not gather all of the remaining Zerg," Duran stated. "Only a small number of them are necessary for the snare to work."

"I do not understand, master."

"With all of the Zerg forces scattered across Aiur, the Protoss will be forced to devote much of their energies to hunt them down and eradicate them all. This will force them to stretch their forces rather thinly, and will give you the opportunity to gather some of the scattered Zerg creatures. This is what you will do, but only gather them to a point where the Protoss will not deem them any significant threat. This will prevent the Firstborns from using their fleets against you as they will think the Zerg survivors are too weak to cause any harm. However, this is only true against vast numbers of Protoss, and not in terms of individuals."

"By then the Protoss will have more than likely wiped out most of the remaining Zerg on Aiur," the hybrid stated, starting to catch on.

"You are correct, young one. By now, with all of the hatcheries, lairs, and hives destroyed, the Protoss know there is no longer any way for the remaining Zerg to replenish their numbers, each one killed will be gone forever. Therefore, once the Zerg numbers on Aiur drops below a certain threshold, I believe the Protoss will lower their guard and caution. It will give you and the Zerg survivors you gather the easy chance to avoid detection by them."

The hybrid bowed in approval. "I will leave at once to begin gathering the survivors, master."

"Be sure to position them closely together," Duran advised. "It will not be too long before Kerrigan returns to the Protoss homeworld. When she does, she will fall directly into our trap."


	56. Chapter 56

**Author's Note: With MLG Anaheim behind us, it's time to update once more. Now while there hasn't been any solid promises, it does appear that Heart of the Swarm may be released very soon. As such, I will now be speeding up my updates for the fic via the chapters I've already written, at least until I can get a better idea of when Heart of the Swarm will come out.**

**I never promised that this fic will be completed by the time of its release, but I will certainly try to get it out as quickly as possible if the release is soon.  
**

**I looked back at chapter 50 where I last mentioned Kate Lockwell. Right now I'm still a bit unsure as to how she'll play into my fic, but she's definitely not going to be some character that just gets mentioned every few chapters for one line or anything, she'll be more important than that.  
**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 56

**Osborne Port, Tarsonis**

Kate Lockwell walked down the ramps of the shuttle with the rest of the UNN journalists and reporters, to be greeted by Dominion personnel. Some of her crew were very nervous around them, but the anchorwoman held her ground. She refused to be convinced by them to leave this place without even the slightest bit of media coverage. Short of maybe putting a gun to her head, she would not allow her nervousness to be shown.

"Miss Lockwell," one of the marines greeted. "You should know better than to come here. Tarsonis is under the strict quarantine zone of the Terran Dominion. For years, we had turned away media personnel from here because everything we do is top secret and military classified. We may be in an open state of war with the Zerg right now, but our policy still stands."

"I'm fully aware of your policy," Kate replied. "But you left out one important factor: during the 4 years of peace the enemies f the Dominion had done little to harm the Dominion as a whole. Jim Raynor's broadcast on Korhal changed all that. The street rioting on the Dominion core worlds may have been quieted down, but that does not change the fact that the citizens are thinking dangerously about leaving the Dominion due to what the broadcasts had revealed."

"Why should we believe you're here to help us?" Another marine scoffed, disgusted. "Your broadcasts on the air had always tried to show the views of the Dominion's enemies."

"That's enough out of you, soldier," a Dominion officer spoke out. "Get back to your post and do what you're here to do."

He then turned his head to Kate. "I apologize for that, Miss Lockwell. You must understand that the vast majority of the Dominion marines were once criminals taken from high security prisons and incorporated into the penal system. The neural resocialization process may keep them from going psycho, but it does have the drawbacks of making them mentally retarded at times."

The two of them shook hands. "I'm lieutenant Corbin, the Dominion's public relations officer here. Got assigned to the Dominion team here because the high command had anticipated there'd be reporters and journalists coming to Tarsonis. Looks like they nailed that part down pretty well."

"Hey, the Dominion has to be able to anticipate something," Kate said, smiling. "Otherwise it would be completely ineffective both as a military organization and as a government body."

"I'll agree with you on that," Corbin replied. "Still, the marines had a point about you coming here. After what Raynor had done on Korhal, your news broadcast had you stating that the emperor is nothing but a war criminal. UNN had always been part of the Dominion news network. Now that the head honcho Vermillion is gone, you turned it against us."

"I did no such thing," Kate defended. "I merely stated that UNN will now look for other sources of news to broadcast, as well as look at over people's perspectives. You know as well as I do that with each story, there are multiple point of views, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle."

"I'll accept that, but that still doesn't explain how you plan to help us here."

"When the emperor used the Zerg to overrun the whole of Tarsonis, he wasn't head of the Dominion just yet. He was still the leader of the Sons of Korhal, a terrorist group to the Confederacy. When the Confederate government had been overthrown, the Confederate military was simply incorporated into the Terran Dominion. The Sons of Korhal had relatively few people in its ranks, which means the vast majority of the Dominion military had nothing to do with Mengsk's actions on Tarsonis that day. In fact, I doubt any of you even knew about it until Raynor had broadcasted it."

"That's true," Corbin admitted. "When we saw the broadcasts, we were shocked to hear the _real_ reason behind the devastation that had been brought upon the planet. Many of us rejected it initially, as we believed Mengsk couldn't possibly be that malevolent. Even now, when it's clear the broadcasts weren't faked, there are still plenty in the Dominion military who have a hard time accepting this."

"The public can accuse you all they want, saying the Dominion military knew all along about what really happened on Tarsonis and hid the information from the public," Kate explained. "The reality of the matter is except for maybe the higher ups, just about everyone had been left in the dark in this situation."

"I don't see how the public is going to accept that."

"It may take years before they can see otherwise," the female reporter admitted. "The fact is right now the Dominion military has been utterly humiliated not only by what Raynor did on Korhal, but also what he accomplished on Char and stopping the Zerg invasion."

"You had broadcasted the news about that," Corbin folded his arms. "You supported Raynor and his actions."

"Only because there was virtually no Dominion military news coming to UNN about pushing the Zerg forces back. General Warfield's actions in leading offensives against the Zerg were encouraging, but it was still the matter of defending the Dominion Core Worlds. On the other hand, Prince Valerian struck a temporary alliance with Jim Raynor to take fight to the Zerg stronghold on Char, and the prince had praised the rebel commander for his actions in turning the invasion into a victory. The only thing I did was broadcast what Prince Valerian had said."

"Which in effect had weakened the public opinion on the Dominion military even more," Corbin pointed out. "Explain to me how you plan to get our reputation back up."

"That's going to have to depend on your actions," Kate replied. "Right now the Dominion public sees you as nothing more than a gang of ill-educated and incompetent scumbags, utterly useless in the heat of battle and incapable of helping others in times of need. The latter should be the way to go. I think you know what I mean."

Corbin nodded. "Although the Zerg invasion has been stopped, there's still plenty of worlds out there that the Zerg need to be cleared from."

"Exactly, lieutenant. Show the people of your good intentions by killing the Zerg there and giving them their homes back. Jim Raynor is only one man, and his Raiders are far less in number compared to the Dominion armada. This means you should be able to clear the infested worlds a lot quicker than he can. Once you do that, just tell me about it and I'll broadcast the news of this over UNN."

"Which doesn't explain the purpose of you being here. We're here only for a salvaging operation, it has nothing to do with pushing the Zerg back."

"Maybe not," Kate agreed. "But because the Zerg had overrun Tarsonis so quickly, I have a gut feeling that the Confederacy didn't get a chance to keep their military secrets safe. After all, that's the main story about the Dominion operations on Tarsonis. Therefore, if you manage to dig up something of military value, it might be possible to use it against the Zerg, and that too would count for something."

The Dominion officer nodded. "That is true, Miss Lockwell. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to return to my post to prepare for deployment onto the planet's surface with the rest of the Dominion troops. I recommend you and your news crew stay here at Osborne Port, at least for now."

"What for?" Kate asked.

"Osborne Port is one of the main space stations that orbit the former Confederate capital world," Corbin explained. "It was among the few areas that wasn't completely overrun when the Zerg invaded Tarsonis. This space station had remained relatively secure while the Zerg wreaked havoc on the planet's surface. As such, it served as a flash point during the evacuation process when the Confederates realized they couldn't stop the Zerg from rampaging throughout their entire world."

"But all the Zerg have left Tarsonis," Lockwell protested. "There's no danger of being eaten alive by them anymore."

"Not exactly, Kate. When the Dominion began the salvaging operations on Tarsonis, we did some surface scans to check for Zerg bio-signatures. The readings were relatively weak, but they were there nonetheless. We don't yet have an exact count, but I can tell you with certainty there's definitely still Zerg on the planet. I have not yet been told just where the salvaging operation will take place, so we don't even know if it'll be near the Zerg or not. This is for your own safety."

"I understand. How long do you think before you'll know?"

"I don't have an answer to that, Miss Lockwell. But I'll tell you this much: I'll let you know of your intentions to the Dominion commander here Colonel Kim. Hopefully she can be persuaded to allow you to come to the planet's surface. If so, I'll let you know as soon as I can."

"I appreciate it, and thank you," Kate and Corbin shook hands again, and the Dominion officer turned around and walked back to join the rest of his troops.

"You sure put on a good show for that guy," one of the journalists whispered to Kate. "Think he believed you?"

"It'd certainly be hard for him to dismiss it," Kate said softly. "Remember, the Dominion needs all the good media coverage they can get right now after what Raynor did to them. When they get desperate, there's little room for suspicion."

"So what happens if Raynor doesn't show up like you think he will? You going to broadcast the Dominion's intentions here?"

"I'm not going have a choice in the matter. I made a promise to them, and if I backstab them the Dominion troops here will just kill us all. As I had stated before, the UNN policy is not being revised to ignore everything from the Dominion perspective, it's merely to listen to other perspectives as well. If there's no one but the Dominion on Tarsonis, then we have no choice but to listen to everything they have to say to us. We must show them that the UNN has not completely cut off its ties with them."

* * *

**Bridge, Dominion Command Ship, High Orbit Over Dead Man's Rock**

General Ridgeway was none too pleased upon speaking to Mengsk once again on the communicator console. Just hours ago, the cargo ship that the emperor had promised him with the special equipment had arrived, and it was not what he had been expecting.

"General, I'm surprised by this of you," Mengsk said smugly. "I just delivered to you weapons of raw power and destruction and you're actually hesitating?"

"With three Apocalypse-Class nuclear weapons sitting on the ship, of course I am," Ridgeway stated. "I thought the Dominion command had forbade such usage of nuclear weapons of this scale. For that matter, I thought the Dominion stopped manufacturing the Apocalypse-Class weapons altogether."

"This is a critical situation, general. In times like these, exceptions can be granted to the rules."

"Sir, you of all people know what kind of devastation these weapons can cause. The Confederacy launched 1000 of these at Korhal back in 2491 and it killed virtually the whole population on the planet."

"Please," Mengsk scoffed. "You really think the people down on Dead Man's Rock deserve anything better? That planet is a lawless world, and I'm being very lenient to the people down there. Three of these weapons aren't enough to kill the whole population, which is more than what I can say for the Confederacy and their actions against Korhal."

"Still, doing so may just cause the population down there to unite against us," Ridgeway warned, but Mengsk just laughed at that response.

"General, you're being unrealistic about them. Virtually all the people down on Dead Man's Rock are just crime lords, mercenaries, criminals, murderers, spies and scoundrels. Most of them have military training that is inferior to that of the Dominion, and all of them possess obsolete equipment. True, some of them are still a force to be reckoned with, but the majority only pose a minor threat to the Dominion armada. All you have to do is show the Dominion strength on their towns, and they'll get the picture pretty quickly."

"What if you're wrong, sir? What if all this does is unite all the people down there?"

"Makes no difference to me, general. If they unite together, they can die together. Their unity is no match for the superior firepower of the Dominion anyway, and if they aren't smart enough to see that on their own, the piles of corpses they suffer through will set them straight."

"But what about allies?" Ridgeway protested. "Dead Man's Rock isn't the only planet to have mercenaries, sir. They could reach out to mercenary groups on other worlds and ask them to come to their aid."

"Don't be ridiculous. The Dominion is the most powerful force in the Koprulu Sector. Other than Jim Raynor and his so-called Raiders, no mercenary force has ever dared to challenge the might of the Dominion fleet and expected to get away with it. If they called out for aid, the other mercenaries would be too scared to go up against the Dominion. Even if by some miracle they did, once the casualties start piling up they'll immediately withdraw their support so they can save their own skins."

"You think pretty lowly of mercenaries, sir."

"They're cowards," Mengsk said calmly. "They put on a big show making it look like they're all powerful, but in reality they're just a bunch of spineless hacks. They'd be trembling even at the threat of tactical nuclear weapons, let alone Apocalypse-Class ones. All you have to do is send them the message you have such weapons at your disposal, and you'll see for yourself just how quickly their morale and confidence will crumble."

"Then why the need to send me the weapons at all?" Ridgeway asked. "I could simply fake a transmission to them saying I have nuclear weapons in my arsenal ready to drop on them."

"Well, although most mercenaries would accept that as the truth out of fear, there would be a few who may think you were just bluffing. Some of them could be high ranking mercs, and they might be able to convince their troops that you were lying. For that reason, it may be necessary to use one of these weapons on Dead Man's Rock to prove to the people down there that you're telling the truth. When that happens, none of their officers would be able to prevent panic from spreading. Even if their officers issue specific orders not to divulge any information to the Dominion troops, their fear of you using a nuke and dropping it on their heads would be sufficient to get them to disobey that order."

The general nodded in agreement. "I will begin the preparations immediately, sir."

"Your mission on Aiur turned out to be a success, and fighting the Protoss is a lot more difficult compared to dealing with mercenaries. I have no reason to believe anything could go wrong here, so don't let me down." With that, the communicator screen turned black.

General Ridgeway turned to one of his officers on the bridge. "Begin preparations for our men immediately. Personally, I don't want to go down there, but we can't factor out that possibility. Have all the landing troops prep their gear right away. I want to be ready to enter Dead Man's Rock's lower atmosphere in less than 24 hours."

* * *

**BattleCruiser Helios, En Route to Tarsonis**

Nova tossed and turned in her bed, trying to rest her mind and sleep, but it proved to be impossible. The experience of having relived the last few years of her life during the memory recovery process had impacted her significantly. Although she had pulled herself together from her weeping state on Jim, the fact remained that she still had plenty on her mind with regards to her actions spent under the Dominion.

In that view she was unsure if Jim could understand her. Sure, he had killed his share of military troops when he fought alongside Mengsk under the Sons of Korhal, but Jim too had been manipulated by Mengsk into thinking they were toppling the Confederacy to bring freedom to the Koprulu Sector. During the time he spent there, Jim had been known to the citizens on multiple worlds as the people's hero. On the other hand, the only reputation she's earned was the Dominion's deadliest assassin, one who struck fear into all who had heard of her. Hell, her assassin reputation was so great that some of the Dominion's enemies had seen her as a legend, some Dominion weapon that was so powerful that it could sweep all before it.

With the exception of the Guild Wars, almost all of the military personnel Jim had killed belonged to the Confederacy, which her family had repeatedly felt was too corrupt for its own good. The Confederate government had proved to be tyrants who exploited the welfare of others in order to feed their own high living standards. Even herself was no exception, as the memory recovery process had shown her that the Confederates had planned to incorporate her into the Ghost Program for their own needs against the Zerg. For this reason, it came as no surprise that there were so many freedom posters with Jim's face on it.

As for herself, her duties to the Dominion had involved cold blooded murder of victims that spoke out against Mengsk and his government. Families had been torn apart by her actions, the lives of so many children ruined as they had to grow up without a mother or father, or sometimes even both. And at the end of the day, none of it had been for anyone's benefit except Mengsk's. From reliving her memories, Nova saw the sheer oppression the Dominion emperor had imposed upon his people.

She sat up and swung her legs over the bed. It was clear she couldn't get her mind off of the matter. In fact, it was something she wasn't sure even Kerrigan could understand. No one fully understood the specific details of the Zerg infestation, and this was exactly the reason why Sarah continued to blame herself for everything that had happened during her time with the Zerg. Nova wasn't convinced the mass murders the Queen of Blades had done were of Sarah's own free will, but the fact remained that no one could prove it. And unlike Sarah who had been taken by the Zerg and infested against her will, the blond ghost knew she had volunteered for the Ghost Program in the hopes to finally escape her dark past.

To that end it made her crimes even more guilty than Sarah's. She hadn't been given a choice in the matter of whether to become the Queen of Blades or not. In fact, as Kerrigan had informed her shortly before leaving Aiur, she had been given very little choice in the matter of joining the Confederate Ghost Program either, as the Confederates threatened to murder her family if she refused.

On the other hand, when her family had been assassinated, Nova had lost the will to live and wanted a means to escape the traumatic events. The Ghost Program had offered her a way out, and she saw salvation in it.

Now, she realized she had been a fool. When she found out from Mal Kelerchian on Tarsonis that day of the memory wipe, it had completely blinded her to the greater picture. Gabriel Tosh, Kath Toom, and Lio Travski all offered her friendship during her time at the academy, and she rejected them in the hopes to complete her training faster so that she could receive the memory wipe so the voices in her head could be quieted down. She had made no attempt to look beyond what would happen after the memory wipe, other than knowing she would become a dedicated Dominion ghost. The killings that she had done during her training days had not been enough to sway her into realizing that she had little idea of what she was really getting herself into.

Unlike Kerrigan, she had openly admitted that the path of the Dominion ghost was something she had wanted. Although Sarah admitted she had reveled in the power the Zerg had given her, none of that might have ever happened had Mengsk not abandoned her on Tarsonis. During their training on Haven, Sarah had made it clear to her that she never even wanted the psionic potential to begin with, let alone the task of being the savior of all creation from the Xel'Naga prophecy.

It was exactly why the question of redemption had been on Nova's mind. The Dominion's actions had clearly had negative effects on the Protoss as well, despite the fact there does not exist a state of war between them. The Protoss council were clearly not pleased with her during the meeting Jim held with them on Aiur, and blond ghost had no doubt that other terrans would feel the same way about her once the Raiders turn their goals towards the Dominion once again.

Her head fell into her hands, as a single tear slid down her cheek. She had been every bit a monster under the Dominion as Sarah had been under the Zerg. Had it not been for her skills and high psionic abilities, she would have been just an expendable pawn in Mengsk's army, all to be sacrificed to feed his megalomania.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, knowing no one would hear it, but deep down hoping that would at least offer some comfort to all the people she hurt and killed. "I'm sorry for what I did in Mengsk's name."

_At last, you understand, Nova._

Nova raised her head up, her eyes widening at the familiarity of that voice. "Tosh? Is that you?"

Then, before her eyes, the figure of Gabriel Tosh appeared, standing before her in his Spectre suit.

The blond ghost scooted back fearfully. "It can't be, you're dead."

_I am,_ Tosh stated calmly. _What you're seeing right now is only a side effect of what you had undergone on Aiur._

"You mean the memory recovery process? I thought only the terrazine substance does that," Nova said.

_The terrazine affects brain cells, my friend. Do not forget, the memory wipes that ghost are subjected to suppresses their memory. Since the Protoss had helped you recover them, I'd say it's pretty obvious that whatever technique they had done had affected your brain cells as well._

Nova nodded slowly, before she felt her eyes water up again. "Tosh, I'm so sorry for what I did to you, and to all of your Spectres."

Tosh gently stroked her hair, making the blond ghost shiver slightly. _It's all right, Nova. You had been played just as I had by Cole Bennett. He tried to kill you, tried to force you to obey him by threatening Mal Kelerchian's life. That was a complete rejection for everything I stood for when I joined hands with him in reviving Project ShadowBlade._

He sat down on the bed, next to Nova. _Now that you gained your memories back, do you understand why I left the Dominion now?_

"You felt Mengsk betrayed the people," the blond ghost murmured. "You told me of that after the battle on Shi, but I didn't remember."

_That wasn't your fault,_ Tosh reasoned. _Mengsk wiped the minds of all the ghosts who participated in the battle because he didn't want them to rise up against him. The only reason I was spared this was because my injuries were too severe, and so Mengsk wanted to wait it out._

The Spectre paused for a moment before continuing, _Don't forget, although the Dominion Ghost Program treated us as a little bit more than just tools during our training, their attitudes towards us were virtually identical to the Confederate Ghost Program upon graduation. We became nothing but tools and weapons to them. Sure, they gave us a small degree of respect due to our killing skills, but you take that away, we would have been discarded immediately._

"I understand that now," Nova whispered. "We had all been brainwashed to serve a tyrant."

_This was exactly the reason why I had no intention of hurting you a year ago,_ Tosh said. _Do you still remember the Spectre raid on Korhal where we had exposed you to more of the terrazine?_ Off Nova's nod, Tosh continued, _Had the Spectres went on the killing rampage, it would have made us no different than the standard Dominion ghosts. I admit some of them had to be killed because they had remained far too loyal to the Dominion, but I knew you would be different. This was why when you stood in the way of reaching the emperor and refusing to join us, I simply called off the assassination attempt and ordered the Spectres off Korhal._

Nova couldn't contain her curiosity any longer. "What did you see in me, Tosh?"

_I saw someone who had been traumatized by the events of her past,_ Tosh answered. _Deep down, somewhere inside you, you still wanted things to go back to the way they were. You may have continued to insist you wanted the memory wipe because you wanted the voices in your head to stop, but somewhere deep in you there was another reason._

"How could you know?" Nova asked. "Even now, I'm not sure I could see another reason then."

_Because before the memory wipe, you still had the personality of the kind girl you had been when your family was alive,_ Tosh replied. _You may not have realized it on a conscious level, but the other reason you chose this path was because you wanted to stop the assassinations. You didn't want other families to suffer the fate your family did. You wanted to protect lives, and that proved you had noble intentions at heart._

She shook her head sadly. "And that turned out horribly. I turned cold and arrogant upon when I became a full Dominion ghost agent."

_It was the brainwashing they had forced onto all of us,_ Tosh said calmly. _It meant that Mengsk was every bit as ruthless as the Confederacy ever was, if not more. Remember, the constant memory wipes every bit a Dominion ghost agent completes his or her mission is the trump card in which that agent would remain loyal to the Dominion. It's not too much different from the neural resocialization process used on Dominion marines, and that is why you rarely see cases of them turning against the Dominion._

"That changed somewhat on Char," Nova pointed out.

_An extreme situation involving billions of Zerg out to kill you would do that, Nova. The point is, when I broke away from the Dominion, I realized right away that the only way to free the people from Mengsk's slavery was to find a way to undo the brainwashing and memory wipes. When Cole Bennett had informed me that the terrazine substance could make that happen, I jumped at the opportunity._

"But I saw with my own eyes that when people inhaled it, the substance made them go completely psycho," the blond ghost insisted. "Mengsk wasn't completely lying about that part."

_I too had been somewhat blinded back then,_ Tosh admitted. _There was one thing Bennett had been correct about: the jorium factor. Terrazine had the ability to regenerate brain cells, but it leaves a man constantly addicted and craving for more. Unless stabilized, he will experience hallucinations, mental breakdowns, and so on. Jorium was the key in stabilizing this, and that was why when I joined hands with Raynor, I immediately asked his Raiders for their help in mining the jorium crystals on Redstone III. Without them, the terrazine collecting on the jungle moon of Bel'Shir would have been completely pointless._

He nodded towards Nova. _For that reason and your encounter with how Bennett had acted towards you, I understand why you tried to convince Raynor that every Spectre turned out to be a murdering psychopath. Other than Bennett, none of us had understood anything about the terrazine stability requirement via jorium back then._

"We defeated Bennett together, Tosh," Nova said softly. "He tried to force me into the Psionic Waveform Indoctrinator to turn me into a Spectre until you came to destroy it. Even after Bennett's death, you still chose not to harm me, and still offered me a chance to join you."

_The terrazine had the ability to enhance your psionic powers,_ Tosh explained. _On a psi scale, the average Protoss had a higher psionic ability than the average ghost, but terrazine would have enhanced a ghost's psionic potential to match that of a Protoss. Your psionic abilities were near unparalleled, and terrazine would have strengthened them to the point where you would have been stronger than any psionic individual, save the Queen of Blades._

Nova frowned slightly at that. "Sarah's not a threat anymore. That ancient artifact Jim collected had restored her to human form. She's on our side now, also with the Raiders."

Tosh nodded. _Then everything is slowly coming to fruition._ Off Nova's confused look, he continued, _Now that you know how much the terrazine would have strengthened you, it was exactly the reason why I tried so hard to get you to join the Spectres' cause. You were the strongest ghost in the Dominion, and among the strongest in the whole Koprulu Sector, second only to Kerrigan. The goal of the Spectres had been to bring down Mengsk once and for all, and ensure that his tyrant government would never rise again. I had been thoroughly convinced that if you had joined us, nothing would have stood in our way of that goal._

"That's why you opposed Bennett's actions for what he did against me," Nova realized. "You felt persuading me to join the Spectres could take a considerable amount of time and energy, and this wasn't something that could be sped up by cutting corners."

_You were always a fast learner, Nova. Once again, you're right. I admit I did somewhat give up on persuading you after Bennett's death, as you chose to return to the Dominion instead. Nevertheless, I knew that sooner or later you and I would cross paths again._

"I saw all the Spectres to be just like Bennett: ruthless and power hungry. As the Spectres leader, I didn't see the people under him would have had different views from his own."

_If I had known of his true nature I would have broken away from him,_ Tosh said angrily. _His plan had been to kill Mengsk and then take the Dominion throne for himself. Had that happened, the only thing I would have accomplished was trade one monster for another. It would have been no different than when Mengsk overthrew the Confederacy and formed the Dominion. The Psionic Waveform Indoctrinators were a clear sign that Bennett had planned slavery himself as well._

"But you had one on Avernus Station," Nova pointed out. "You used it to complete the Spectres activation process, which was exactly what I told Raynor about."

_That one was different from the ones Bennett designed. The one that Bennett had forced you into had an excess of the terrazine liquid which would have completely brainwashed you into his slave. The one I had on Avernus Station had a much lower concentration of terrazine, only enough to regenerate enough brain cells so that the subjects would remember what they were once like, nothing more. It was never meant to reach the point of brainwashing as you thought it would have been._

Nova lowered her head in guilt. Her actions had killed innocent people there, and she even persuaded Jim to help her out with that.

_It isn't your fault, Nova,_ Tosh said. _Personal experience had undoubtedly played a factor into that, and I can imagine your experience when being in one of those tanks and slowly being submersed in terrazine liquid would have been terrifying. It would come as no surprise that you felt all Spectres would turn out to be monsters. The ones that would have emerged from Bennett's machinations certainly would have had the station not been destroyed._

"If I had known there were different goals with different Spectres I would have thought more carefully instead of just obeying Mengsk's orders to have you all killed," Nova said glumly.

_That's still open to debate. Despite the terrazine exposure you had been subjected to on Korhal that day, it clearly had not swayed you to turn against the Dominion. That was among the other factors when it came to getting you to join the Spectres' cause, as every ghost requires a different amount of exposure to terrazine before he or she could be affected enough to overcome the Dominion brainwashing. Bennett had been a fool to use threats to persuade you, that did nothing more than strengthen your resolve towards the Dominion, something I had wanted to avoid._

_I do not regret joining hands with him,_ Tosh continued. _My only regret was staying with him for so long that I had been blinded by my own goals to see his._

"You mentioned to me that your goals were about freedom."

_Ghosts are still people, Nova. Yet during the days they had trained us at the academy, the instructors had forced us to embrace one thing, and one thing only: to serve the Dominion without question under any and all circumstances. Personal goals, dreams, history of families were pushed out of our heads, and we were trained that nothing is more important than the survival of the Dominion government, namely Mengsk himself._

"And you realized that had to change," Nova said softly.

_I felt the terrazine would finally free the ghosts from the Dominion. They would finally be able to cut the strings from their puppet master. Once the strings are cut, the ghosts would be free to choose their own path, instead of just being squeezed and hammered by tyrants who would never view them as anything more than a machine._

"Those memories that terrazine had brought back weren't exactly pleasant to relive, Tosh."

_It was another risk factor,_ Tosh agreed. _Combined with the neural inhibitors implanted into the ghost operatives, the mind would certainly have trouble letting go. It was exactly why the terrazine exposure had to be done very carefully, or the flood of memories could make a person go completely psycho. Either way, none of this matters now._

Knowing what he was referring to, another tear slid down Nova's cheek. "Tosh, I'm sorry for killing you."

_That's not what I refer to. One aspect of Bennett's plan had been to force Mengsk to confess to his crimes in the past, as he has no conscience at all and constantly craves power. That was something that had been achieved regardless._

Nova suddenly understood what Tosh was getting at. "You're talking about the UNN Studios broadcasts on Korhal."

_It was you who had personally held the broadcasting tower positions, which had allowed Raynor and his Raiders to send the transmissions. You had played a crucial part in exposing Mengsk for what he really is, and it was your actions that had caused the Dominion worlds to riot. True, Mengsk is still on the throne, but it's nevertheless a major step in the right direction. Don't forget, you and Kerrigan had liberated the Dominion prisoners from New Folsom, something I had hoped to accomplish with the Raiders. To that end, I'd say everyone would now see you as a Raider and a liberator, not a servant of the Dominion._

Nova shook her head sadly, remembering the impressions she got from the liberated prisoners at New Folsom. "There are still plenty who aren't convinced."

_It takes time, that's all. You're not Agent X41822N anymore. With Raynor and his Raiders, you have an identity again, not just some serial number. That too was something I had wanted to achieve with the Spectres: I wanted them to know they have a purpose outside of just being a weapon for power hungry bastards like Mengsk._

The blond ghost nodded slowly. Tosh was right on that aspect. During her years with the Dominion, the neural inhibitors and constant memory wipes prevented her from remembering anything, and that made it extremely difficult to build relationships. Of course, that was the way the Dominion wanted it, as they felt if ghosts got close to others, it would be a sign of weakness and thus inhibit them during their missions.

Yet with the Raiders, she felt she had a sense of belonging, and it wasn't weakness at all. Even before the Char invasion, Nova had quickly seen that having people around that cared for her had made her stronger. Jim had valued her for far more than just her killing skills, though she still feared that would disappear once he got Sarah back. When that didn't happen, a feeling that had been buried deep inside her had been awakened.

From the point of her family's death all the way until she joined hands with the Raiders, Nova had only been used by others to suit her own purposes. With the Raiders, despite the hesitation of trusting a Dominion ghost, some of them eventually grew to care for her and her wellbeing, and she ended up caring for some of them as well.

It was the first time she finally felt special again, and not just as a means to accomplish one's own ends.

Tosh smiled at Nova's silence, seeing her deep in thought. _You may have killed me, but the fact remains that you had joined hands with Raynor and liberated the people I hoped to free at New Folsom, and then some. You helped Raynor with his revolution in turning the Dominion public against Mengsk, and now many of the Dominion media branches have severed their complete and total loyalties to him. For that reason, I'd say you have done enough to be forgiven. I'm sure the rest of my Spectres would agree._

"When we take up arms against the Dominion again, there will be no holding back," Nova promised. "The Raiders will keep fighting until Mengsk is off his throne for good."

_Then my goals have been accomplished regardless,_ Tosh replied. _The Spectres' goal may have been to bring Mengsk down, but we knew if we could turn you against him, there would have been no stopping us. The Spectres project may have been stopped, but you have nevertheless turned against the Dominion, and that's enough of a victory for now._

He gently padded Nova before continuing, _The burden is on you now, Nova. Finish what we had started so many years ago and bring the Dominion government down._

"Thank you, Tosh," Nova said quietly. "I know I don't deserve your forgiveness for what I did."

_Even the dead forgive, you know that. If they could see what you're doing now, they'd forgive your past transgressions very quickly._

The blond ghost nodded. "I made a promise to keeping fighting for the liberty of others, and I won't go back on that."

_Then you don't need me here to inspire you anymore,_ Tosh said, as the image of him began fading. _Farewell, Nova. Never forget who you are: you're a freedom fighter, you always were. The people will never forget what you have done for them._

* * *

**BattleCruiser Helios, En Route to Tarsonis**

Nova shot up in her bed. Sometime after her grieving for the others she must have fallen asleep. But the dream vision she had experienced with Tosh had been more vivid than she had thought possible.

But either way, Tosh was right about her: she was a soldier, and that came with a sense of duty.

And this time, she knew that the duty she had devoted to had been the right one.


	57. Chapter 57

**Author's Note: I wasn't joking when I said I'd be updating faster on this fic for the time being. Unless something completely unexpected shows up, it is my intent for this to be the updating rate until I have a better idea on Heart of the Swarm's release.**

**This chapter will foreshadow things to come, so I hope you guys enjoy reading it. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 57

**Osborne Port, Tarsonis**

Kim was not pleased upon hearing Corbin's report. "How did UNN hear about this?" she demanded angrily. "This is a top secret salvaging operation and even I don't know the full details!"

"I believe it may be a matter of some marines having lost their judgment, ma'am," the Dominion officer answered. "You know how many of them love going to bars, taverns, and nightclubs and drink themselves silly in the process. Some of them are even foolish enough to do it right before their mission, no matter what importance Dominion high command stresses about the mission itself."

"So you're saying one of the women they chatted to might have been a UNN employee and their tongue simply slipped due to drinking so much alcohol," the colonel concluded.

"It's the only explanation I have, colonel," the Dominion officer answered. "The details of the Tarsonis mission had been encrypted, and UNN doesn't have the equipment necessary to decrypt them. If they had tried to hack into our systems, Dominion security would have caught it right away, and we found no records of any of that."

Kim sighed, disgusted. The military operation hadn't even gotten off the ground and already the matter of secrecy had been ruined. This was a terrible way to start the mission. If secrecy could be broken this easily by mere UNN employees, it would be a walk in the park for the Dominion's enemies.

"Where is Lockwell and her reporters now?" she asked.

"Dominion personnel have escorted them into one of the waiting rooms in this building," Corbin answered. "They seem eager to conduct interviews with us."

Kim snorted. "That's only because the bigger fish they want to fry isn't cooperating, lieutenant." Off Corbin's confused look, she continued, "After Raynor's actions on Char, about the only news available to report was the constant rioting problems happening all over the Dominion worlds. People lose interest if they hear the same thing for too long."

"What about the Char invasion?"

"The problem here is that it was a combined effort between the Dominion and Raynor's warband," Kim explained. "The citizens aren't stupid, Corbin. They all know in times of war, it doesn't matter how strong your forces are on the battlefield. It's how effectively you can use them that determines victory or defeat. Don't forget, Prince Valerian specifically praised Raynor for his actions on what happened on Char, saying that had it not been for him, the whole Dominion fleet he had assembled would have been slaughtered. Because of that, the public gave the respect to Raynor, while only seeing the Dominion military as a bunch of retards who understand nothing except point and shoot. You're the public relations officer, you should know how well we're faring with the public right now."

"It's very low in popularity," the Dominion officer admitted. "There are still a select few who are willing to show a little faith in us, but the vast majority and looking to put their trust into others."

"It's why although I don't like the fact that the UNN are here, we don't have much of a choice in the matter. We need to regain public support, and every little bit will help in that aspect."

Corbin gave a nod before speaking into his radio. "Send the journalists in here."

The large doors opened and Lockwell and the other UNN reporters were escorted into the larger room by Dominion marines. Each of them saluted Colonel Kim, and she saluted them back. "Go back outside and begin final preparations for surface deployment," she ordered. "I'll take it from here."

"I'm glad to see the Dominion officers have a higher decency than the grunts," Kate observed, before offering her hand. "It's good to meet you, colonel."

"Likewise, Miss Lockwell," Kim said, shaking her hand. "Don't mind the marines, they can be very narrow-minded, and a lot of them are not pleased that you will not longer fully support the Dominion in its news."

"Lieutenant Corbin told me similarly," the anchorwoman said. "I had hoped the Dominion military would have been able to understand I'm merely looking at other perspectives."

"So why come here? I watched your report on Agria and how the Agrian colonists praised Jim Raynor for his actions in clearing the Zerg infestation from their world and allowing them to go back home."

"The UNN has covered Dominion operations for the last 4 years," Kate replied. "Granted only a few of them have been military due to the silence from the Zerg, but now that war has broken out again, there are many who wish to see the Dominion in action, and to see if the military can truly back up his words in that the Dominion fleet would be able to decimate the Zerg in no time."

"The emperor has his moments of arrogance," Kim admitted. "Combined with his influence on others, I hope you can understand why it had given the Dominion forces a somewhat grandiose attitude about others prior to the Zerg invasion."

"Then it came as a great shock to many of the troops that they were pushed back?"

"Among the main rules of war is that you must never underestimate your enemy, Miss Lockwell. I had watched the news conference that the emperor held, commemorating the 4 year anniversary of the Brood War. You said it yourself that it seemed wrong for the Dominion to devote its energies to hunt down Jim Raynor and should be focusing more on strengthening the fleets in the event of another Zerg invasion."

"And it would see my concerns had been vindicated," Kate folded her arms. "The emperor seemed to be giving everyone the impression that there was still plenty of time before the Zerg invasion, so dealing with the fleet could be pushed to the backburner while priority remained in hunting down rebels and terrorist groups. As a result when the invasion _did_ happen, it seemed everyone was unprepared for it."

"You have to look at this in another way," the colonel stated. "I admit Mengsk's speeches might have been a little too arrogant for his own good, but this is also about the impressions it leaves on the public."

"What do you mean?"

"The emperor is correct about the sheer ruthlessness of the Zerg and the fates of those unfortunate enough to stand in their way. You've seen the reports of those who had suffered at their hands during the invasion."

Kate nodded. "During the emperor's inauguration speech when the Dominion was formed, he stressed about the terran race having to stand together against the Zerg menace."

"He also said strength lies in unity," Kim pointed out. "But only the minority of all terrans are soldiers, whereas virtually every Zerg creature is a vicious killing machine upon birth. The emperor knows that no matter how you carve it, we are vastly outnumbered by them, so the only way the terran race can survive is for everyone to stand together."

"What does this have to do with his arrogant attitude?"

"Give the sheer number of Zerg we're dealing with, you don't create a safe impression with the public if you tell them no matter how many of them you kill, it won't make the slightest difference. That would end up making the citizens fatalistic. You have to give them the impression that there is hope for them."

"Yeah well this has backfired with the Zerg invasion," Lockwell said, displeased. "The majority of the Dominion people now have the impression that the emperor's claims were nothing but hollow boasts."

"I assure you the Dominion would have taken the fight to the Zerg on Char had we just been given a little more time," Kim defended. "Prince Valerian simply beat us to it, though none of us had expected him to strike an alliance with Jim Raynor to make it happen."

"Well, others may be praising the rebel for his actions on Char, but they tend not to look at the whole picture. The prince may have said Raynor's actions had ensured that the invasion was a success, but the fact remained that it doesn't matter how skilled the man is. Raynor's strategy is only as good as the forces under his command, and I doubt he would have succeeded at all without the Dominion fleet behind him."

"That is true," Kim said proudly. "Despite his actions and claims, the fact remains that his Raiders are weak compared to the Dominion forces. Still, it came as a great shock to many of us that he was able to penetrate all the way down to Korhal and make those broadcasts. As the most heavily fortified Dominion world, we always thought few would have the nerve to even think about infiltrating the Dominion there, let alone try it."

"That is the reason why me and my news crew are here," Kate explained. "If the Dominion is truly being honest about helping the refugees in need in the aftermath of the Zerg invasion, then every military operation being conducted would be done to help them in that manner. There are billions of refugees who have lost families members and homes, yet have little place to go as the Dominion core worlds are still turning away the refugee ships that approach them. If nothing is done about the situation soon, their supplies will run out. They'll be starving due to the lack of food, and their ships won't have any fuel left to take them anywhere safe."

"I'm sure the emperor will take all that into consideration," the colonel assured. "He may be far from perfect, but he still has morals. That many refugees is too high a number for him to ignore, and he would be willing to provide them with the basic amenities to survive."

Lockwell was not convinced. "He was the reason behind the Zerg invasion of Tarsonis in the first place. More than 2 billion lives were lost because of that, and he didn't even blink."

"Mengsk knows what problems must take priority and what problems can be pushed to the backburner, Kate. With the way the Dominion public sees him right now, do you honestly believe he's just going to ignore the refugee problem and expects it to just fade away?"

"That's going to have to depend on how he sees the people," Kate replied. "When the Zerg invasion began, he had appointed General Warfield to lead the Dominion fleet to victory, and the public felt they were safe and the Zerg threat would be quelled in no time. Yet despite the general's actions, nothing of the sort happened. This is why the public is praising Jim Raynor as they felt he actually delivered the salvation the people had been waiting for, instead of Dominion politicians that promise everything and doing nothing."

"The Dominion intends to change all that, and this salvaging operation will be part of the plan," Kim explained.

"UNN has tried for years to get better insight on what the Dominion has been doing on Tarsonis, without any luck. Perhaps given all that's happened, you can give us some more information?"

Kim thought about this for a moment, before relenting slightly. "Although most people know about the destruction the Zerg had wreaked upon Tarsonis, there are very few in the military, let alone the public, who understands just how quickly a concentrated Zerg attack can overrun an entire world. In the case with Tarsonis, as billions of them invaded, it took only a couple of weeks. The vast majority of the Confederate military and their defenses were overrun within the opening days of the invasion, leaving its citizens to fend for themselves."

"The UNN covered that," Lockwell said. "Almost the whole of the Tarsonis population had been killed by the Zerg, many of them did not even come close to reaching an evacuation port."

"The rate at which Tarsonis had been overrun was something the Confederate military was simply not prepared for," Kim explained. "Despite the fact that they had known about the Zerg for years prior to this, it would appear the Confederacy had completely overlooked the sheer size of the Zerg numbers. They had proved to be far too arrogant into thinking their armed forces were strong enough to repel any threat, and no enemy of theirs would be foolish enough to attack them at their homeworld."

"What does this have to do with the salvaging operation?"

"The Confederate defenses were overrun quickly because no plans had ever been made for dealing with the Zerg on such a massive scale," the colonel answered. "However, despite the destruction the Zerg had brought upon to the planet's cities, it would appear they were not very interested when it came to terran technology."

"So you believe that technology could still be of benefit," Kate stated.

"Exactly, Miss Lockwell. Because the Zerg overran Tarsonis so quickly, virtually no one had the time to save that technology, or to destroy it to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. In some cases the Zerg had destroyed it themselves in their rampage, but in other cases they had left it intact because they didn't know what they had stumbled upon, and the technology has been left buried in the rubble ever since."

"But the technology is 4 years old," the anchorwoman pointed out. "And you just said the Confederates were too arrogant for their own good."

"The vast majority of them were," Kim agreed. "But there were a handful that were more cautious and felt this overconfidence and pride would eventually cause the whole Confederacy to collapse onto itself."

"Well their fears were certainly vindicated by the Zerg invasion," Kate grumbled.

"Regardless, eventually the Confederates gave in to their requests and devoted resources to fund their projects that would better defend the Confederacy. The status of them are uncertain. Some of them might have been completed, others might not even have gotten off the ground and are still in blueprint form or something. This salvaging operation will investigate more into that matter. Who knows? Some of what we might dig up may show Confederate projects way ahead of their time. If so, I'll submit my report to Emperor Mengsk immediately and let him know of my opinions on it. If all goes well, the Dominion will be able to better protect its citizens from future Zerg aggressions."

"Will you allow me and my news crew to come to the planet's surface with you?"

"Once we secure the area first," Kim promised. "Our salvaging operation will be focused on Tarsonis City, the Confederate capital. Before the Zerg invasion, it was a shining beacon of civilization and meant to be a symbol of hope to all of humanity. As the main seat of the Confederate government, it's obvious that the Confederacy's most important and top secret technologies would be located in the city's database. If there's anything the Confederate military had that the Dominion doesn't have right now, it's got to be located there."

* * *

**Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char**

The sounds of battle erupted over the ashes of Char as the individual Tal'darim continue their battle against the Zerg defenders. Prior to Ulrezaj's orders to capture live Zerg specimens, the toll taken on the Protoss warriors had been at an acceptable rate. Due to the ease at which the Zerg could replenish their numbers, there had been many cases where Zealots and Stalkers simply withdrew within their base parameters, where Roaches, Hydralisks, and Infestors pursued them, only to be cut down by the Photon Cannon defenses. And unlike the valuable templars, the Photon Cannons were highly replaceable, and Probes were sent in to immediately lay down additional ones for each one the Zerg destroyed.

However, the live capturing of Zerg made the task of the Tal'darim extremely difficult. Despite the news of the Aiur branch having successfully captured Zerg specimens for their Xava'tor, all of them knew they faced a completely different situation.

Aiur was the Protoss homeworld, and despite the fact some 5 billion Zerg still occupied it prior to the Zerg invasion, they hadn't targeted the Protoss survivors there for years and had also stopped reproducing their numbers. This meant that unless provoked, the surviving Protoss would be relatively safe as long as they hid from the Zerg.

On the other hand, Char was the primary base of operations for the Zerg swarm, and the Queen of Blades had made sure that the amount of larvae produced here would never cease and the swarm would continue to strengthen. This had been one of the fundamental orders she had issued since she assumed command of the Zerg, and despite her defeat by the hands of Jim Raynor, the order lived on. Observer reports from elsewhere over the primary hive cluster had confirmed continuous larvae activity from the Zerg hatcheries, and this made it extremely difficult for the Tal'darim to wear down the Zerg numbers.

To make matters worse, as orders were issued that the Zerg specimens _must_ be captured alive, it forced the abandonment of the Carrier assistance. The robotic interceptor drones had proven to be especially effective at killing vast numbers of Zerg, but they had all been programmed to kill hostile forces on the spot, not to maim and then have Protoss warriors capture alive.

The same was true for the towering Colossi walkers. Their thermal lances had been very effective at incinerating the smaller Zerg, so only the Queens and Ultralisks had the carapace strong enough to withstand their power and still keep on fighting. The former was thus assigned to be among the top priority targets, as their slow speed off the creep made them extremely vulnerable. In addition, the Queens were among the few Zerg breeds that were rather sentient, and Ulrezaj had hinted that their capture would further facilitate his plans with the Khaydarin Crystal shards.

In the air, battle had continued as Protoss Scouts, Phoenixes, and Void Rays fought for air supremacy against the Zerg Mutalisks and Corruptors. Priority had been given to target the larger Brood Lords, as they were an easier target and slow moving due to the vast numbers of Broodlings they carry. However, as the Brood Lords had to be mutated from Corruptors first, this was not always easy to pull off. Tal'darim efforts to capture them had been continuously frustrated by the Corruptors' refusal to make such a morph due to the small numbers of Protoss ground warriors.

To compensate for this, many of the High Templars had been ordered to leave the safety of the Tal'darim base and make their presence felt on the battlefield once more. Along with the robotic Sentries, the High Templars continuously channeled their psionic powers to create hallucinations of Protoss Zealots, Stalkers, and Immortals, thus forcing the Zerg to believe there are more Protoss ground troops than there actually were.

As the Observer reports were indicating, in this the Tal'darim were succeeding. More and more Corruptors were being bred, many of them ready to morph into Brood Lords to take on the ground Protoss as only the Stalkers had the ability to return fire upon them. All it now took was a matter of luring the Brood Lords close enough to the High Templars, where they would then unleash their psionic storms and fry their muscles, forcing them to tumble out of the sky.

Fighting with the Tal'darim on the frontlines, Ulrezaj was so far pleased with the events that were unfolding. Although only a few Zerg specimens had been taken in and were so far insufficient for his plans, the Zerg had nevertheless been deceived. It was now only a matter of time before he would have enough Zerg at his disposal for him to harness their energies into the Khaydarin Crystal shards.

With regards to the Protoss energies, it would be an even simpler task. There were no signs of any of the Tal'darim that were willing to question him, and the Dark Archon was confident that a few of them would be willing to sacrifice their lives and energies for the greater good that he had promised them.

* * *

**Bridge, Hyperion, En Route to Dead Man's Rock**

Matt Horner looked out from the bridge of the Hyperion and sighed. In a few more minutes, the planet of Dead Man's Rock would be within visual range. It was not a place that he looked forward to seeing again, however. And it wasn't just because his mercenary wife Mira was on the planet.

The whole planet was nothing but a gigantic dumping ground and scrap yard, and an extremely miserable one at that too. At least with junk yards on planets like Brontes II were still maintained by reasonably experienced and disciplined people. On the other hand, the ones that cover most of Dead Man's Rock were mostly neglected, except in the event to strip down some of the metal husks of ships and vehicles and use them to construct buildings.

That is, if you could call them buildings. The trip to Dead Man's Rock last time in order to retrieve the Confederate adjutant had only confirmed Matt's suspicions: most of them were completely dilapidated, and there were very few that looked to be in much better condition compared to the ruined Confederate buildings on Tarsonis, and some of even were in an even worse condition.

Nor were many of the buildings permanent. As a safe refuge for mercenaries, criminals and mass murderers, rioting was very frequent on the planet over many different issues, and living space was certainly among them. A man could find himself in a staying for the night in ramshackle hotel, only to wind up dead in the morning as the building would collapse onto him during the night. And even that was still better compared to the other outcomes, which included mobs bursting into the hotel and murdering everyone they could see just to steal scraps of credit for themselves.

Given that, the captain wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if just about everyone went about their business, if one could call it business, with the impression they were under the barrel of a gun the whole time. It probably wouldn't be too far from the truth.

To compound matters, this time he had no choice but to deal with Mira. Last time he was able to stay in the background and let Raynor do all the talking to his wife, but the rebel commander had decided to temporarily split away from the Raiders on this dual mission. He was far away aboard the Helios, accompanied by a few of Warfield's other BattleCruisers, and on his way to Tarsonis with Nova, while Matt was given the command of the Hyperion and also some Dominion BattleCruisers to deal with the situation on Dead Man's Rock.

A further matter that greatly frustrated the young captain was the fact that Raynor had instructed the Raiders cooperate with Kerrigan on this mission. She was currently alone on the lower decks of the ship near the drop pods, though Matt was unsure if there was going to be a need for an orbital drop at all.

He saw the logic and wisdom behind Raynor's decisions, of course. The commander knew that despite everything that had happened since the Char invasion, many of Warfield's Dominion troops were still uneasy about being under his leadership. As such, Jim felt it was necessary to prove himself without the presence of his Raiders at his side, so that the Dominion soldiers would be better convinced of his intentions of laying it all on the line in the name of freedom and justice. Furthermore, both he and Nova had their own demons to face on Tarsonis: Jim remained traumatized after what happened to Kerrigan at New Gettysburg almost 5 years ago, while Nova had been permanently scarred after her family's assassination in the Tarsonis capital.

With regards to assigning Kerrigan to the Raiders for Dead Man's Rock, Jim had explained that it was a matter of building trust. Despite the female ghost's actions on Agria, New Folsom, and Aiur, the commander could easily see that the vast majority of the Raiders still possessed a major element of fear for her, and many still harbored a deep hatred after everything that had been done during her time with the Zerg.

For that reason, Jim felt it was necessary for trust to be built in another way. So far, most of the Raiders had only trusted Kerrigan due to the commander's orders to work alongside her. However, Raynor knew that this couldn't be kept up forever, and thus it was necessary for her to earn the trust beyond him. So far, the only ones apart from Jim that seem to fully trust her were Nova and Dr. Hanson. Everybody else, including Matt, still suspected that she could still be the Queen of Blades and could still be manipulating them to suit her own purpose.

Now, with Jim far away and no longer able to give specific orders for this mission, it was up to Matt to decide for himself how best to utilize the forces under his command, including Kerrigan. This too had made him uneasy, as he knew the female ghost was fully aware of the distrust around her.

The lack of people to speak to on this issue was yet another problem on his mind. Dr. Hanson had remained behind on Aiur to tend to the casualties sustained during the assault on the Overmind, though she insisted that a second reason to remain was to leave a better impression on the Protoss. This was something the captain understood, as the Queen of Blades had left a terrible scar on the Protoss people, and more female terrans were needed to convince the Protoss that not all terran females were bloodthirsty monsters bent on the destruction and suffering of others.

Warfield too had remained on Aiur, along with the vast majority of his Dominion battle group and the liberated New Folsom prisoners. They were not participating in clearing the remaining Zerg from the Protoss homeworld, however. Instead, the general was assessing the losses sustained so far and to continue to build up the fleet so that they would have a better chance to prevail when the fighting returns to the Dominion once again.

The vast majority of Aiur was in ruins, its cities, providences, and industrial complexes little more than dilapidated remains. Nevertheless, since the Protoss had returned in force to reclaim their homeworld, small sectors of Aiur had been restored to a point where it could once again support life, though it was still a far cry from the glorious days of the huge golden cities that the Protoss had built prior to the Zerg invasion.

Still, the Protoss had been grateful of the terran assistance, and had restored what remained of the terran construction yards on Aiur to working condition once more. Matt had been surprised to hear that the complex had not been completely destroyed by the Zerg 4 years ago, when it had been used to produce the forces necessary when Raynor rallied the Raiders alongside Tassadar's fleet to destroy the Overmind. Apparently the Zerg had lost interest in it after Aiur had been abandoned and the Protoss refugees used the last functional Warp Gate to escape to Shakuras.

Now, what remained were nothing but the bare bones of a construction complex, and Warfield planned to get his engineers working on it day and night so that it could be fully restored to working condition. It would be a daunting task, but general believed with the resources at their disposal, it could be done relatively quickly and allow the Raiders to continue to build up their fleet to challenge the Dominion armada.

Matt turned his thoughts back to Dead Man's Rock as the lawless planet finally came into visual range. Despite the fight will be against the Dominion once again, it was not something he completely looked forward to. Although he had asked Raynor frequently about before the Raiders' full attention returns to toppling Mengsk, working alongside mercenaries just felt wrong from his perspective.

It was for this reason that he felt very uneasy about Jim's actions in hiring mercenaries for his cause when the Zerg invasion began. To the captain, their skills and abilities may have counted for much and contributed to many of their successes on the battlefield, but the fact remained that their morals and ethics were still a critical factor. The Raiders' actions against the Dominion during the train robbery on Tarsonis, stealing the Odin walker on Valhalla, and making the broadcasts on Korhal had confirmed that the Dominion too were hiring mercenaries, where they had been encountered in the form of War Pigs, Devil Dogs, Hammer Securities, Spartan Companies, Siege Breakers, and Hel's Angels.

For that reason, Matt had continuously been concerned about the mercenaries with the Raiders. After all, they didn't care about taking sides or anything like that, as long as they got their credit payment at the end of the day. Given the lack of funds prior to the Zerg invasion, the captain felt that the mercenaries Raynor had hired for his revolution had actually stayed with the Raiders was little short of a miracle.

Still, he felt their attitudes had changed little even after everything that has happened. As long as they were paid well, nothing else mattered to them. And this made them even more likely hiring targets by the Dominion. The rioting across the Dominion core worlds meant the military was now desperate for major success, whoever their opponent may be. That meant that the Dominion fleet could use all the help it could get, including mercenaries to do its bidding. Dead Man's Rock is full of them, and that did not comfort Matt in the slightest bit.

He snapped out of his thoughts, however, when the communications console beeped, and three Wraith interceptors decloaked in front of the Hyperion.

"Sir, we're receiving a transmission from them," one of the bridge crew members announced.

"Patch it through," the young captain ordered.

A mercenary's face suddenly appeared on the screen. "Captain Matthew Horner, we are here by decree of your wife Mira Han."

"Don't remind me," Matt grumbled. "Anything useful you have to report?"

"Please follow us, captain. We're under orders to escort the Hyperion and your other ships down to the surface of Dead Man's Rock."

"Where exactly are you taking us?"

"A safer location where you and your wife can speak face to face. She did not want to do it over a comm-link because she was concerned about the possibility that the Dominion might be monitoring the transmissions and pinpoint your location from it."

Matt sighed. "Then I'll make this brief and comply before this transmission gets traced."

Without another word he turned off the communications console, before nodding to the bridge officers. "Follow the Wraiths and take us down to the planet's surface immediately."


	58. Chapter 58

**Author's Note: This is exactly the reason why I tend not to make promises of when chapters can go up (too many cases of Murphy's Law happens in my life). In the last chapter, I had said that I would speed up my updates for this fic unless something goes completely wrong. Well, almost right after I posted up chapter 57, that "something" happened. I'll spare you guys the details, but I'm not entirely sure if the problem is really fixed yet. It appears so, but it's too soon to tell.**

**But regardless, if it has been fixed, then I'll be able to resume my normal updating speed that I promised.  
**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 58

**Aiur**

From deep within the jungle foliage of Aiur, the hybrid watched as Protoss Scouts continued to patrol the skies, escorting the vast numbers of robotic Observers. The amount of escorts protecting the Observers had decreased greatly since the combined terran-Protoss offensive towards the husk of the Overmind had been a success. The last major Zerg bastion on the Protoss homeworld had been too badly weakened to continue to defend the corpse of its master, and upon witnessing the Zerg forces had scattered from the battlefield, both the Firstborns and the terrans had concluded that all that remained was the clean up the isolated pockets of resistance.

To an extent, they were not entirely unjustified in this belief. Despite the fact that he had sensed a great deal of arrogance within Jim Raynor's fighting force, the hybrid also saw that there were indeed a few intellect terrans that had logically analyzed the battlefield and its aftermath.

The loss of all of the Aiur hive clusters meant that the remaining Zerg forces on the planet were on the run without any means to replenish their numbers. The Protoss forces had issued specific orders for Zerg drones to be among the highest priority targets so that they could not mutate into hatcheries and thus spawn the necessary larvae in order to reinforce the Zerg remnants. Reaching out with his mind, the hybrid could no longer sense the presence of any more drones on Aiur, meaning that from this point forth the Zerg numbers could only decrease.

The next major targets were to be the most massive of the Zerg breeds. After the brief catastrophe that had temporary sent the terran and Protoss forces into disarray by the combined efforts of the Zerg Krackens and Leviathans, special priority had been given to eradicating them as quickly as possible. Given the massive size of both creatures, neither was particularly effective at hiding from the Protoss fleets. All over Aiur as the hybrid had blinked from one place to another, Observer reports were coming to the Protoss command that the Zerg Krakens were being exterminated.

With few of the heavy breeds left, the hybrid saw logic in the Protoss beginning to lower their guard in their continued hunt against the remaining Zerg forces. The Zerg had always relied on their massive numbers to tip the battle in their favor, regardless of the variety of breeds the swarm had at its disposal. As both the terrans and Protoss had concluded years ago, if the overwhelming numbers factor could be overcome, victory against the Zerg could be much more rapidly achieved, and this was exactly the case that was now developing on Aiur.

Nevertheless, this would eventually prove to be their downfall. Neither the terrans nor the Protoss are aware of this, but by now a strong Zerg presence was no longer necessary. Although on a one to one basis, the average size Zerg creature was on par in fighting ability and strength with the average Protoss warrior, it was a completely different story when compared to the terrans.

From what he had witnessed during the terran force assaulting the Zerg towards the Overmind, the hybrid quickly saw that compared to the Protoss, the terrans were much more cowardly. While they share the Firstborns value in cherishing life, it appeared that the terrans understood very little in the concept of self sacrifice in order to archive the greater good. In fact, when it came to the fighting characteristics of the terrans, it seemed that they preferred to fight in a battlefield where they would completely dominate the enemy in both quantity and quality numbers and material.

This may explain why he had sensed loathing and resentment when it came to fighting the Zerg, as achieving overwhelming numbers against the swarm was virtually impossible under any circumstances. Unlike the Protoss, the terran species seemed highly unwilling to trade lives in the hopes that in the long run they might reap the benefits of such a sacrifice.

If so, this would prove to be their undoing, and the hybrid believed once his master's plan was free to progress forward once again, the terrans would and should be the first to be eradicated by the Zerg swarm, as they were certainly proving themselves the weaker of the species. The Protoss-terran hybrids known as gestalts that he had briefly seen on Aiur, led by the Dominion terran force, was an indication that there were those in the terran race that were indeed that were willing to venture into the unknown, but even in such cases there was proof that many terrans had absolutely no comprehension of the path they were taking.

Even so, the hybrid knew there were those in the terrans that must never be underestimated. Even his master had acknowledged the potential threat that James Raynor may pose. What he had achieved on Char was something most terrans would have considered completely impossible, a clear indication that while the terran showed signs of arrogance, he was nevertheless a very capable opponent who is able to snatch away a victory against overwhelming odds.

For the time being, there was the matter of assembling the Zerg survivors, and the hybrid had already come across numbers of Roaches and Hydralisks, all of which came under his control, where he had sent them to gather at a designated location on Aiur. It was a relatively remote area, and far away from the patrolling Protoss warriors. The heavier strains such as Ultralisks, Brutalisks, and Omegalisks proved much more difficult, as their large size made them stand out much more easily on the battlefield and they were frequently subjected to Protoss Carrier and Void Ray attacks, and most of them were killed before the hybrid had a chance to reach them.

Regardless, if all went according to plan, he did not have to keep up the survivor gathering for an extended period of time. Soon, the former Queen of Blades would be returning to Aiur. When she does, the hybrid would snuff out the last hope of salvation for both the terrans and Protoss, and bring the victory his master had been waiting for.

* * *

**Dominion Command Center, Bel'Shir**

General Madison entered the makeshift conference room in the lower levels of the Command Center. This was technically the infirmary wing, but as there hadn't been any casualties from firefights with the enemy, activity here was mostly minimal. The reports he had been receiving in the field from Dominion messengers had indicated that with the exception of helping the psionically exhausted ghost agents make it to relative safety behind the Dominion troops, all of the female Dominion medics had very little to do.

While this was indeed a good sign, the fact remained that the risks of the Dominion presence being discovered on the Protoss jungle moon of Bel'Shir was steadily growing. Despite the fact that the ghost operatives were making full recoveries from psionic exhaustion, reports clearly indicated with each recovery process was taking longer than the previous one.

This wasn't completely surprising to him. Dominion ghost agents were never meant to be used in such a manner. Even in cases where they were assigned missions that required them to use much more of their psionic energy than normal, very few of them had ever reached a point where they would be so thoroughly exhausted and wouldn't even have the strength to remain conscious. Even in the cases where it _did_ happen, they were evacuated by Dominion forces relatively quickly and sent elsewhere to make a full recovery, where it would then be a few weeks before they would be assigned for another mission to ensure they regain their full strength.

On the other hand, using them as mere tools to open the Protoss seals on the altars was completely different, especially when the operatives had to be called upon again and again to facilitate in the terrazine harvesting operation. Fortunately, the sound amplifiers positioned at the water springs were still doing their job, and the Dominion engineering teams were reporting full functionality on the devices. This had allowed the Dominion SCVs to continue the terrazine collecting without coming under attack from the Tal'darim Protoss.

As such, for the time being there was no immediate need for him to return to the battlefield to direct his troops for battle, though Madison remained on alert in the event of such a possibility. For now, he could focus on another matter at hand after he had conceded to one of the Dominion doctors with regards to digging up information about the Dominion's projects, specifically if it involved this terrazine substance.

"General Madison," one of the Dominion doctors greeted from the meeting table. "I hope you were able to find some information about what we're dealing with here. Right now the whole medical team is just blindly stabbing about in the dark trying to figure this terrazine gas out."

"Dr. Collins," Madison greeted the female doctor back, as he sat down on one of the chairs. "You have been the one to personally monitor our marine patient who got exposed to the terrazine. Any news on that?"

"Yes, although it's not something you want to hear," Collins said quietly. "The terrazine apparently cannot last very long without proper preparation and special containers. It has a half-life of less than 24 hours unless contained under the right circumstances."

"I don't think that's going to be a problem," the general said. "None of the containers have been opened, so the terrazine gas should be safe the way it is."

"Be that as it may, I'm more concerned about our patient and what the substance is doing to him."

"How is he so far?"

"Well the substance isn't killing him, but that's the only good news," the female doctor said. "After the sedatives had worn off, he tried to escape the infirmary room by stealing a scalpel and putting it against one guy's throat, threatening to kill him unless the doctors disengaged the security locks. Luckily for us one of the ghost operatives was nearby, and got the drop on him before anyone was hurt."

"So where is he now?"

"Asleep," Collins answered. "I gave him a massive overdose of sedatives so that he won't go completely psycho the moment he wakes up, but this is only a temporary solution. Continued usage of sedatives also has its consequences, but the rest of the doctors and I agree that unless something can be found that can counter the terrazine, there's not much of a choice."

"That's why we hope you have some good news for us, general," another doctor spoke up. "If you found anything about this substance, it could help us out here."

Madison adjusted a little in his seat. "I do have some news about it, but I'm not quite sure if it's considered good or not."

Everyone else at the conference table leaned forward slightly, immediately paying attention to what the general was going to say next.

"Apparently, this is not the first time the Dominion has encountered this terrazine before," Madison explained. "It had been used before in military applications via Project ShadowBlade."

Collins shook her head, disgusted. "I'm not the slightest bit surprised by this. So what happened?"

"It's very similar to what's happening here," the general answered. "The people who got exposed to the terrazine went psycho, although it would appear that some people involved in the project claimed that's not entirely the case, even though this was mostly disavowed."

"Well with Mengsk, his words always seem to overrule others as the truth," the doctor grumbled. "Did the project give any details on what the terrazine does, other than make people go crazy?"

"There's only theories, but I was able to find out some information on what the Dominion had hoped the terrazine would do. In addition, I found out some information about the potential threat the terrazine may pose to us, regardless of its potential."

"What do you mean, general?" one of the doctors asked.

"Apparently we terrans aren't the only ones who have mined this terrazine in the past," Madison replied. "Whatever this substance really does, it's sought after by both the Zerg and the Protoss. Clearly this gas is valuable to them as well."

Seeing the unease on the doctors' faces, the general continued. "From what I managed to dig up, it would seem the story with the terrazine gas began back in 2501, less than a year after the Dominion had been formed. Back then, General Warfield was still on active service in the military."

"I thought that was the year he retired," Collins mused.

"He did," the general answered. "It was related to Project ShadowBlade and the terrazine substance as well."

Madison paused for a moment before continuing, "In 2501, an unmanned Dominion space probe had detected some sort of strange gas leak from a fringe planet known as D-4358. Dominion personnel had been sent there to investigate, where they nicknamed the planet Demon's Fair due to its harsh environment and extreme temperature shifts from scorching hot to freezing cold. The probe had detected Protoss ruins on the surface, along with an ancient shrine and a mining facility."

"Let me guess, the emperor sent the military there because he thought if it was valuable to the Protoss then it might be a power source for the Dominion as well?" a doctor asked.

"Exactly," the general replied. "Dominion teams had discovered the Protoss writings on the shrine walls. They appear to be identical to some of the writings we have seen on the altars here on Bel'Shir."

Collins frowned. "So you're saying the Protoss on Demon's Fair belong to the same Protoss branch we're dealing with here, the Tal'darim."

Madison nodded. "From the writing, it was from there that the Dominion learned that this gas was called the Breath of Creation by the Protoss, which the Dominion translated into terrazine. Some of the Dominion troops got exposed to the terrazine, and it made them go psycho. Yet Mengsk was more interested in the military applications of the gas, and after being persuaded by others, he ordered Project ShadowBlade to be formed. General Warfield was chosen to be the head of the project."

"The whole thing must have collapsed onto itself after the people there saw they couldn't control the terrazine," the female doctor concluded.

"That is correct, and the people there suffered the same addiction problem to the terrazine. It drove them mad with hallucinations, mania, and violent outbursts. One team member called Cole Bennett killed most of the team members, and so the project was put on hold indefinitely. Warfield himself retired from the Dominion, and was sworn to secrecy never to tell anyone about it. The project records were destroyed, and with so few members from the project still alive, it was easy to conjure up the story that none of it ever happened. Everyone thought that was the end of the matter altogether."

"But something caused it to come back?" Collins asked.

"It had been thought that Cole Bennett had died, but apparently this was not the case," Madison explained. "With the knowledge of Project ShadowBlade behind him, he had sought to revive the project. In 2503, the planet Altara had been used as a trap for Dominion ghosts. Apparently Bennett's forces had lured some of them there, where they were captured and he turned them against the Dominion. The ghosts were then converted into Spectres, and to serve him."

"How was he stopped?"

"That's a tricky one, doctor. Even our best ghost operative, Nova Terra, AKA Agent X41822N, was sent there and she had no success. Fortunately, she was able to avoid capture. The emperor assigned her to the task of defeating those Spectres after they had attacked his palace."

"They actually dared to go that far?" another doctor exclaimed. "No enemy of the Dominion has ever had the nerve to try something like that before!"

"That must have been why they thought it would work. Agent X41822N and her ghost team were sent there to stop them, but her team was killed, along with all of the emperor's elite bodyguards. Fortunately for us, she was able to accomplish the mission by herself and save the emperor. The details get sketchy from there, but it was confirmed that Cole Bennett was indeed killed, and Agent X41822N proved successful in her mission, just as she always does."

"That might prove to be a problem now," one of the doctors said quietly. "You said it yourself that Jim Raynor turned her against us, against the Dominion."

"That may give us some more insight as to why Mengsk wants the terrazine harvested from here so badly," the general replied. "According to the records from Cole Bennett before Project ShadowBlade was terminated, he had tried to explain that the terrazine substance could be controlled, and how the experiments with it could be a success."

"What exactly was the terrazine tested on?" Collins asked.

"This is the part that confused me, doctor," Madison said, rubbing his chin. "According to the information I was able to dig up, Project ShadowBlade primarily tested itself on Dominion ghost operatives, with the intent that it would make them stronger."

"Did they succeed?"

"To a small degree, yes. But on the practical side, this turned out to be a catastrophe. Ghosts are valuable assets of the Dominion because of their psionic abilities, and since terrazine gas affects the brain, it also affects the alpha waves the brain emanates that give the ghosts their psionic powers to begin with, and enhanced them, in some cases significantly."

"I don't see why this is considered a failure then, general."

"Because enhanced psionic powers take a backseat when compared to loyalty to the Dominion, doctor. Ghost operatives having relationships is virtually unheard of due to the memory wipes they undergo, usually after each mission they take. Combined with the neural inhibitors, it keeps our agents loyal to the Dominion. You may not like the system due to its ethics, but the fact remains that it works. Unfortunately, it seems that terrazine finally found a way around all this."

"What do you mean?" Collins asked.

"I'm not too sure on the exact details, but the memory wipe process essentially kills off or suppresses the cells in your brain that contain any previous memory of what you have," Madison explained. "That's why once an operative undergoes it, he can't remember anything. The problem when experimenting with terrazine, however, is that the substance seems to have the ability to cause brain cells to regenerate."

"So you're saying this could reverse the effects of the memory wipe?"

"In theory, yes. That is why I've sent the messengers coming to the Command Center to pass the word: the ghosts we still have here must never come into contact with terrazine canisters. Cole Bennett had used the terrazine to turn Dominion ghosts into spectres, but I didn't find any details as to how he did this. That doesn't necessarily mean that the moment our ghosts get exposed to the terrazine they'll turn on us, but we simply can't afford to take that chance. Our numbers on Bel'Shir are depleted enough as it is if the Protoss discover us, the last thing we need is to lose ghosts over the terrazine."

Dr. Collins nodded, taking it all in. The vast majority of Dominion marines were taking from the penal system prisons, which meant that most of them had undergone the neural resocialization process so they would stay loyal to the Dominion. The process itself also affected the brain, and thus could be very similar to the memory wipe process Dominion ghost operatives go through.

If so, then the marine still in the infirmary may prove to be a bigger danger than she once thought. Virtually all of the marines that had undergone the resocialization process had not done so willingly, and the few she had come into contact with admitted that they had little memories of their previous life.

If the terrazine could regenerate brain cells, then it could affect Dominion marines just as it could affect ghosts. Granted right now there's only one person who has been exposed to the substance, but that didn't mean he wouldn't expose others to it if given the chance.

"General, if you'll excuse me, I have to make a brief check-up on our patient," the doctor said calmly, pushing herself upwards from the chair.

Madison nodded. "We'll all still be waiting here, Dr. Collins. Just try to get back as soon as possible. You said you wanted to hear the whole story of everything I dug up about the terrazine, I would also like to give my opinions about it."

Collins gave a slight nod, before turning around and leaving the room without another word, leaving Madison and the rest of the Dominion doctors and medical personnel behind. Before she closed the door, she took one last look at them. It seemed that some of the doctors shared the same concern she did.

* * *

**Tarsonis**

A Dominion officer saluted Jim as he stepped out onto the battlefield in his CMC Powered Combat Suit. "Commander Raynor, our base setup is nearly complete. We're making the final preparations before we will be able to intercept the Dominion troops here on Tarsonis and disrupt their salvaging operation."

Jim saluted back. "Carry on, soldier. I want to make this stop on the former Confederate homeworld quick. We may have bigger matters to attend to than just the Dominion."

Around him, the commander could see marines, Marauders, Firebats, and Reapers exiting their dropships, as SCVs moved into position to begin constructing bunkers to defend their base perimeter. They varied in design. After obtaining the Zerg research to improve the bunkers, Stetmann had discovered a way to build both the Shrike Turret types and the Fortified types. The former was based on the Zerg Spore Crawler, adding an automated gun turret that added firepower for defense, while the latter was inspired by the Ultralisk carapace, allowing the bunkers to withstand greater punishment before failing, as was all too often the case in the face of concentrated Zerg attacks.

Goliath walkers and Siege Tanks were also being deployed, though some of them were to be used in the attacking force to deal with the Dominion's defenses. Jim had decided to leave all of the S.E.T.H. warbots and Cyber Devourers on Aiur instead, as he did not underestimate the abilities of the Dominion's engineers. He had little doubt that if they encountered one here and captured it, the Dominion military would immediately begin mass producing them.

Regardless, Warfield's troops seemed to be deploying in a relatively efficient manner, and Jim smiled at such a sight. Clearly the recent battles they had undergone from the Char invasion, to clearing Agria, liberating New Folsom, and finally fighting alongside the Protoss on Aiur had given them plenty of experience. By now, most of them were battle hardened veterans, no longer among the manpower pool taken from the prisons prior to the Zerg invasion.

His smile turned into a frown, however, as he turned his eyes. Away from the Dominion troops, Nova sat on a nearby boulder cleaning her C-20 Canister Rifle.

Jim suddenly recalled what the blond ghost had told him shortly after they had entered Tarsonis's atmosphere regarding the hallucination dream or something where Tosh had appeared to her. Clearly ever since she had gotten her memories back, the ghosts of the past had come back to haunt her, and Nova was still suffering from a great deal of guilt for all of her actions, the ones regarding killing Tosh and destroying his Spectres project only the most recent one. Raynor himself was still unsure about whether the Spectres would have eventually been a threat to him or not had he sided with Tosh back then, but from what he pieced together after reliving Nova's memories, clearly there was more to Tosh than what met the eye.

Nova saw Jim approaching and scooted over slightly, making a bit more room for the commander.

He sat down next to her. "We all have our demons to face, Nova. You knew this even before you regained your memories."

"Is that the reason you're coming with the attack group instead of giving orders from the base?" Nova asked.

Jim nodded glumly. "Before the Zerg invasion, I usually avoided the topic of Tarsonis with the Raiders. Every time that topic was brought up, it only served as a reminder for my biggest failure, the one that cost humanity the most: I couldn't persuade Sarah from refraining from going to New Gettysburg by herself, and I didn't get there fast enough to save her from the Zerg."

"Doesn't mean you didn't make up for it," the blond countered. "Are you suggesting your actions on Char accomplished nothing?"

"All I know is that Sarah went through four and a half years of hell because I didn't step in when I had the chance," Jim said quietly. "If I had maybe none of this would have happened."

"You're not the only one, Jim. This is where the nightmares began for me, and they didn't stop after I became a Dominion ghost as I thought it would."

"You couldn't have known that back then, that's all. You said it yourself that the Dominion Ghost Program was to train the recruits into cold and efficient killing machines for the sole purpose of serving the Dominion government, nothing more. Given that, even if you had accepted the friendships of the others at the academy it would have made no difference as the memory wipes upon graduation would have suppressed all that."

"Until Tosh and I crossed paths again over the Spectres and the terrazine conflict," Nova said sadly. "All he was trying to do was free ghost agents from Mengsk's oppression and I killed him for it, along with all his Spectres that he worked so hard to free. I devoted my whole life to a tyrant without even the slightest regret. I can still see it in the eyes of Warfield's men every time they look at me. Despite the fact that they're part of the Raiders too, they still see me as a Dominion traitor."

Jim snorted. "They're going to be viewed the same way soon. Once we encounter the Dominion troops here we'll be hearing plenty of accusations from them of how they broke their oath to the Dominion military. Tosh did the same thing some years back."

"It doesn't change the fact I killed him simply because I didn't understand what he was really doing."

The commander thought about it for a moment. "The way I see it, Tosh's way of freedom and liberty isn't really too far from my own methods."

"How can you say that?" Nova asked. "I doubt you'd really do anything to get the job done."

"Maybe not," Jim agreed. "But you have to look at it from Tosh's point of view. Before he and I met on Redstone III, he was just a renegade Dominion ghost, and even that knowledge required a little digging to find out. To the rest of the public, he was just a typical space pirate. Under those conditions, it would be extremely difficult for him to find allies to challenge Mengsk. Don't forget, while the terrans and Protoss are not in a state of war, the fact remains that the Raiders are the only confirmed allies to them. The Dominion is certainly their enemy, so there was no way Tosh could have turned to the Protoss and asked for their help or anything like that. Therefore, to him, it would have made no difference whether the Protoss had the ability to recovery the memories of ghost agents or not because Tosh would have been unable to convince them to help him in his cause. That being the case, it would explain why he had to turn to the terrazine option again despite what had happened in the past because there were simply no other options left."

Nova nodded slowly, understanding. "That doesn't explain why he pushed ahead with those plans of his after he joined up with you."

Raynor rubbed his chin. "Well, obviously Tosh and I had different morals and ethics. At that point he didn't know if I would really trust him or not. That was why he didn't mention to me about the jorium crystals during the mining operation on Redstone III, Dr. Hanson had to tell me that herself. When you sent me that transmission about Project ShadowBlade and the usage of jorium and terrazine to enhance ghost abilities, I became very suspicious of Tosh. It became really hard to know just who's side he was really on."

The ghost looked down in guilt. "I should have known better, Jim."

"It's not your fault, Nova. Tosh's actions for the jorium and terrazine mining on Redstone III and Bel'Shir were barely any different from when I struck a deal with Valerian for the Char invasion. As I tried explaining to Matt numerous times over, no matter how much we all want it, the fact remains this isn't an ideal world. There are times where we have to improvise with what we have at our disposal, and work with people we aren't sure we can fully trust. He can argue all he wants about how it'll backfire on the Raiders in the end, but it's not like he has come up with any better solutions."

"You really think it was a good idea sending him to Dead Man's Rock and telling him to work with Kerrigan without your supervision? He may have been part of your Raiders since the beginning, but it doesn't take a psychic to know that he's still very suspicious about Sarah."

"I'm only one man. Matt knows I can't keep this up forever, so sooner or later she will have to work with the Raiders without me looking over everything," Jim answered. "Once we're done here, we'll go back to Aiur. By then hopefully the Protoss will have killed off all the remaining Zerg, and we can finally learn more about the Xel'Naga prophecy."

Nova leapt off the boulder, picking up her rifle. "Then let's get to it quickly. I'm really hoping we can uncover something useful like the last time you were here. Mengsk had already silenced the rioting, so hopefully we can start it up again."

* * *

**Dominion Base, Dead Man's Rock**

"The base defenses are up and running, sir," A Dominion officer reported to General Ridgeway as the two of them inspected the Dominion forward base established on Dead Man's Rock. Beside them, marines rushed from their fortified positions towards their destinations. Some of them were heading towards the troop transport vehicles, others were coordinating with the Dominion engineers and digging trenches.

In the skies above, Ravens flew overhead and deployed their auto-turrets around the base perimeter, while being escorted by Wraiths and Banshees. Other dropships continued to land, carrying with them ammunition supplies for the Marauders, Reapers, Siege Tanks, Thors, and Goliaths.

"There has been no sign that the people on the planet know we're here?" Ridgeway asked.

"Not that we can tell," the officer replied. "Although I don't see what difference it would make even if they did. This entire planet is a haven for pirates, mercenaries, and smugglers. Illegal activity is rampant everywhere, and nothing else is permanent. Whatever armed forces the people have are all inferior to Dominion weaponry anyway, and they have to be smart enough to know that. There might be a select few that might pose a slight threat to us, but nothing more."

"That is true," the general said. "Even so, I had my reasons for bringing the three Apocalypse-Class nuclear warheads down from the BattleCruisers and to the forward base here. They may be more vulnerable on the surface, but they can also be transported faster from one place to another instead of being launched from the BattleCruisers."

"It's a wise decision, sir. I agree with the emperor's assessment that the mercs here are nothing but cowards. All we have to do is scare them to that point, and they'll submit to the Dominion right away."

"That's a bridge we'll be crossing another day, soldier. Right now we're just here to deal with Mira Han and retrieve Orlan." Ridgeway turned his head to one of the technician officers. "Has there been any luck locating Han's forces yet?"

"No sir," came the reply. "We have been able to detect minor concentrations of them scattered here and there, but the core of her mercenary battle group isn't showing up on our scanners. There's billions of rusted metal hulks of ships and other vehicles on Dead Man's Rock, some of them might be interfering with the scanners, so my guess is Han must have hidden her forces within those derelicts. If they refuse to show themselves, we'll have no choice but to head to the individual towns to search."

Ridgeway shook his head, disgusted. Mercenaries never seem to make it easy initially. "Any probable guesses as to where she might be hiding them?"

"The only major settlements on this planet are Paradise and Deadman's Port, sir. Unless she hid them out in the wastelands, those two places seem to be the only possibility that could conceal such a massive fighting force."

"Then that'll be the place we'll be sending most of our troops," Ridgeway stated, before turning to the Dominion officer once more. "Send a few scouting patrols to the smaller towns and ask the inhabitants about Han's whereabouts. The rest of the strike force will head to the major cities. If Mira Han is there, we'll be sure to find her."


	59. Chapter 59

**Author's Note: All right, this chapter was supposed to have gone up yesterday, but unexpected matters kept me busy. Last chapter, I did get a few questions regarding how the hybrid was supposed to deal with Kerrigan now that there's no Zerg army on Aiur anymore.**

**For that, you just have to remember one simple thing: even after all these chapters, I haven't written anything about the hybrid in combat yet. In other words, the question of just how powerful this hybrid really is hasn't been answered yet. All you have to do is keep that in mind.  
**

**The plots for Tarsonis and Dead Man's Rock will be revealed soon, I've already got it all planned out. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 59

**Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char**

Ulrezaj psionically pushed away the corpse of a Zergling as the Tal'darim warriors beside him continued to fight off the Zerg creatures from within the primary hive cluster. Despite the progress, the overall strategy was beginning to stray away from the original plan. The Dark Archon's orders were to capture as many of the stronger Zerg breeds as possible, but this was proving very difficult on a practical scale.

The live capture of Zerglings and Hydralisks proved relative easy to accomplish, but the more powerful breeds proved much more difficult. This was especially true in the case of Roaches and Infestors, as both of the Zerg creatures had the ability to move whilst burrowed, and the former had the ability to regenerate its wounds at an even faster rate while underground. Without the Observers, none of the Tal'darim warriors could see where they were retreating towards while burrowed, and the excess of Overseers in the area meant many of the Protoss flying drones fell prey to Hydralisk needle spines before the Infestors and Roaches could be spotted.

The Queens proved no easier task. Despite their slower speed, even while on the creep itself, the fact remained that they were actually sentient creatures, whereas most of the other Zerg breeds were simply creatures were near insatiable bloodlust. The Queen of Blades had evolved the Zerg Queens to be extremely intelligent, acting as leaders on the battlefield, as well as wardens to the Hatcheries, Lairs, and Hives. This meant that more often than not, the Tal'darim Zealots, Immortals, Stalkers, and High Templars encountered Queens heavily protected by the other Zerg creatures and were forced into engaging them first.

With the Phoenixes and Void Rays still effectively holding their own ground against the Zerg flyers, Scout ships were called away from their interceptor duties to facilitate in the capture of the Queens, but this had proved to be no easy task either. Many of the Queens continued to create Creep Tumors to keep the creep spreading, thus allowing them increased speed. As the Scouts' photon blasters were weaker in comparison to their anti-matter missiles, it also meant that it took longer to destroy the tumors, and this left many of them vulnerable the Zerg Spore Crawlers moving rapidly into the area as the creep spread.

The largest Zerg creatures on the ground proved every bit as frustrating to capture alive. With their extremely thick carapace, the Ultralisks could withstand significantly greater punishment compared to the smaller Zerg breeds. The key here was to injure them just enough for the Zealots to move in and subdue it, but the balance was not easy to get. Their thick skin allowed them to withstand even High Templar psionic storms, and unless injured severely in the face of overwhelming numbers, the Ultralisks would simply burrow underground to regenerate themselves.

The Brutalisks and Omegalisks followed a similar pattern, but at least with their massive size they proved easier to trap due to their greater need of maneuvering space. Of course, the smaller Zerg minions had anticipated this in many cases, and an enormous amount of energy had to be expended to kill off the escorting Zerglings, while still preventing the Brutalisks and Omegalisks from escaping. This had worked a few times, and some of them had already been captured, but it still wasn't enough to accomplish Ulrezaj's plans.

In the air, the constant threat of the Scourges continued to hamper with any Protoss Carrier intervention, as the massive golden ships were simply too valuable to be lost in such a manner. The same was true of the Protoss Motherships, which were even more difficult to replace than the Carriers.

On the other hand, the situation was coming along better back at the Tal'darim base, where efforts had continued on the Khaydarin Crystal shards, and that proved to be encouraging to Ulrezaj. The Zerg creep contamination was not very difficult to clear from the sacred Xel'Naga artifacts, and the glowing blue hue on the shards had confirmed that the crystals could still be tapped into for power and energy.

With regards to how much power and energy however, that is a completely different story. While the Tal'darim High Templars have confirmed that each individual crystal shard still contains more than enough energy to forge the Khaydarin Amulets, such a relic is only on a small scale. In comparison to even the Pylons that provide power to the individual Protoss buildings, such a small Khaydarin Crystal shard was certainly not capable of providing sufficient quantities of power and energy.

Thus the main question was the matter of assembly, and the Dark Archon had already been informed that the High Templars in the base were concentrating their efforts on such a task. However, he had also been warned that the process of reassembling the shards back into Khaydarin Crystals may not prove to be a complete success, as there was simply no telling what sorts of experiments the Queen of Blades had subjected the shards to. This was obviously not the answer that Ulrezaj had wanted, but he knew this was not something within his own control.

Thus as he braced himself for the next Zerg attack wave alongside his Tal'darim warriors, he hoped that the High Templars will soon be able to report to him with better news. If not, he would still be able to forge the warped Khaydarin Crystals using only Protoss and Zerg energies, but such an action would also force him to revise his future plans as they would be vulnerable to the psychic and Void powers of other Dark Archons. Should it come down to that, then it was something that Ulrezaj would have to prepare for.

* * *

**Bridge, Hyperion, High Orbit Over Dead Man's Rock**

Matt's eyes narrowed as the Hyperion descended lower into Dead Man's Rock's atmosphere. In less than an hour, it would touch down on the planet's surface. The Raiders, along with Warfield's troops, would then have to begin to deploy onto the field immediately, as it was clear to him that the Dominion forces had arrived on this dump first, which meant that they had the greater amount of time to make the adequate preparations for their mission.

It was bad enough as it was just to even see this place again, let alone actually come down to the surface. Last time the Raiders were here, at least he had the luxury of staying aboard the Hyperion in high orbit, never having to exchange a single word with Mira. This time he would have no such luck, and as Raynor had left him in charge of the mission here, he'd have no choice but to work with her mercenary force, comprising of nothing but criminals, spies, and serial killers.

Yet that was far from the other thing that bothered the young captain. Being branded as terrorists by the Dominion was of little concern due to the Korhal broadcasts as the public were clearly no longer willing to put their full trust in the Dominion military anymore. However public image was still a major concern to Matt, and the entire point of the revolution against Mengsk and the Dominion was to send a message to the people of the Koprulu Sector that the Raiders are freedom fighters to help the common people achieve their liberty and freedom from tyrants and oppressors.

It was exactly the reason why he had been so against Jim's idea of striking a temporary alliance with Mengsk's son Valerian. Although the Zerg were the enemies of both the Raiders and the Dominion, the idea of the two factions working together would have been a severe setback, and possibly a total rejection, of everything the Raiders stood for. Yet the commander had a point that Mengsk's tyranny did not automatically mean his son would turn out to be the exact same bloodthirsty monster, and for that reason alone, he finally backed down on the matter and agreed on Valerian's offer.

His fears and concerns rose back up again as the battle on Char came to an end with the deinfestation of the Queen of Blades. After the way Mengsk had backstabbed Jim a few years prior, Matt had been expecting his son to pull the exact same trick, now that the Raiders' service was no longer necessary. That the young prince had actually honored his end deal and departed ways with the Raiders without any strings attached whatsoever had seemed almost unthinkable to Matt, but there was no denying the fact that Valerian was clearly not like his father, constantly craving power without even the slightest regard for others.

To that end Matt had been somewhat humiliated in the aftermath of the Char invasion for his unwavering belief that almost all of humanity's leaders were solely comprised of the selfish and arrogant. There were plenty that were every bit as monstrous as Mengsk, but there were also those who proved to be far more noble, even those within the emperor's own family tree. Nevertheless, the possibility of deception and betrayal could not be ruled out, and it was for this reason that the young captain remained uneasy about the Raiders' newly acquired allies ever since departing Char.

With regards to Mira and her forces however, it was a completely different matter. After Mengsk had portrayed the Raiders as traitors to humanity for years, Matt knew that the media only broadcasted part of the story. However during the four years of peace and quiet until the Zerg invasion began again and watching thousands of news broadcasts from multiple branches, there had been very few broadcasts that had ever mentioned anything noble when it came to mercenary groups. Granted, most mercenaries are considered to be traitors to authority and government, but he had seen firsthand of what his wife's soldiers were capable of.

Despite the tensions from the media branches, Matt knew that the Dominion still had some control over the news networks. If news got out that the Raiders were working with mercenaries as ruthless as Mira's, they could begin to lose the goodwill of the people and public opinion may shift back into the Dominion's favor once more. This was something Horner intended to avoid. The Dominion had been weakened ever since what happened on Korhal, and they must not find any opportunities to regain their hold over the general public.

Yet despite the frustration of coming to Dead Man's Rock once more and the disgust of having to work alongside Mira, along with the concern of the possibility the Raiders' public image could get tainted from this, these had a less dramatic effect of concern to Matt in comparison to the last factor of this mission, of having to work alongside Kerrigan without Raynor's presence.

Despite everything that's happened ever since they had departed Char with her, there was still no assurance that the ancient Xel'Naga artifact had really restored the former ghost's humanity. The remaining Zerg blood in her was a testament to that, and Matt continued to consider the possibility that it could be used to affect her judgment, emotions, and behavior. Although Raynor had stated that she was now much more compassionate and caring than even when she had been with the Sons of Korhal, the possibility that this could all be just a facade could not be factored out, as the memories of the Brood War was a clear reminder to Horner.

Apparently his body language had betrayed his thoughts, as Annabelle, one of the Raider technicians fixing some equipment on the Hyperion bridge spoke up. "Are you all right, sir?"

"It's nothing," the captain answered. "I'm just anxious about what's going to happen on Dead Man's Rock soon."

"You're a horrible liar, captain," the female engineer said calmly. "I can tell by the look on your face there's more to it than that, so spill the beans already."

Matt thought about it for a moment, before relenting. "It's not just having to work with Mira again. I'm more concerned about Kerrigan."

"Still don't trust her?"

"When you're around someone who has the power to tear this whole ship to pieces with just her own mind, I think such a concern would be justified."

"It's not like she's done anything to harm us ever since we left Char," Annabelle pointed out.

"That doesn't eliminate the possibility that she could just be playing us the whole time," Matt countered.

"So you're not even going to trust the words of our commander about her?"

"In war, decisions have to be made without allowing your emotions to affect them. Valerian may not have betrayed us as I thought he would, but that doesn't mean other cases would turn out the same way."

"Yeah well Raynor had a point about accepting the offer in the first place, in face you forgot," Annabelle said. "The whole revolution would have meant nothing if the Zerg prevailed in the end. You're acting as if the whole Char invasion had accomplished nothing except satisfy the commander's personal demon problems."

"I don't like the idea seeing him get hurt again. Whether she realizes it or not, Kerrigan has a far greater impact on him than she thinks. You weren't part of the Raiders then, but I was with Jim when we went to Char a few years back to see her transformed into the Queen of Blades. The effect it had on him was devastating, despite the fact she had allowed him to live. Later on in the Brood War, after her betrayal, it proved almost too much for him to handle. When the conflict came to an end, Jim had turned from a reformed criminal to an alcoholic spiraling completely out of control, where it had been that way for the last four years. Only when Valerian contacted us with the possibility that there might be a way to bring her back did I see the resurgence of determination that I had waited so long for."

"Some of us did hope he would succeed in that too, you know. You honestly thought commander Raynor would have undergone the Char invasion just for the sake of defeating the Zerg?"

"Of course not, but the fact remains that even when the Xel'Naga artifact had been moved into position at the base of the primary hive cluster, there was still no assurance that it would work the way Valerian had theorized. Had his theory been wrong and the relic couldn't reverse the infestation, the whole of the Raiders and the Dominion invasion force would have been wiped out. Under that logic, the risk Jim had taken was simply too high, having gambled everyone's lives on a theory that no one could prove."

Annabelle folded her arms. "And what would you have done? We all knew the Zerg menace would return sooner or later. After we left Mar Sara, shortly after the Zerg invasion began, you said it yourself that this whole mess wasn't just going to blow over and the Zerg would never stop until we're all dead. Were you just hoping to ride it out until something happened to prove you wrong?"

"No, I would have concentrated on getting rid of Mengsk and his Dominion government first," Matt answered. "Once that was accomplished, we would have the full support of the people to take the fight to the Zerg."

"Except your plan was based on the assumption that the Zerg would have continued to stay quiet for many more years to come," Annabelle countered. "You called our commander's plan risky in the Char invasion. The way I see it, yours is every bit as risky, if not more so. You would have gambled everything on the assumption that the Zerg wouldn't return before Mengsk could be brought down, and there's no way you could predict that."

Matt was just about to respond when Annabelle continued, "Don't forget sir, until we retrieved the Confederate adjutant on Tarsonis and got the encrypted data decrypted, we achieved very little success against the Dominion in the last four years. What happened on Korhal was significant, but it didn't topple the Dominion as we hoped it would. In addition, after what happened there you even told the commander yourself that for the moment we had to turn away from our revolution and concentrate on the Zerg or there wouldn't be anyone left alive for the victory party."

"True, but during the initial stages of the revolution everyone had thought the invasion's purpose was planetary conquest," Matt replied. "It didn't take long before people began to see the Zerg had something else in mind."

"That's no excuse," the female technician countered. "You saw it on the UNN broadcasts yourself that once the race to the artifacts had been lost, the Zerg advance slowed down. They didn't give up any of the worlds they conquered, so the only thing that meant was the worlds that the Zerg hadn't yet invaded got a slightly bigger breathing space, nothing more. You and I both have seen firsthand just how fast the Zerg can overrun a whole planet, so the only way we could have stopped them was to take the fight to Char. You were right in that the Raiders weren't strong enough to make it happen, and that was why the commander had agreed to fight alongside the Dominion fleet during that operation."

Horner sighed in frustration. She was right, but it didn't make him feel any better. To him, fighting alongside the Dominion fleet seemed to give the indication that the Raiders were weak, and force to crawl before the Dominion to achieve their goals. It wasn't that he felt the Raiders didn't need anyone else's help, but the Dominion was supposed to be the very last choice given the entire nature of their revolution.

Before he could come up with another remark however, the communications console beeped. Pressing the button to respond, one of the mercenaries' faces appeared on screen again.

"Captain, we are approaching designated meeting spot where you and your wife will speak face to face."

"Here? But this is the middle of nowhere," Matt protested. "Dead Man's Rock may not be pleasant, but I know there's still towns on this planet. Why did Mira select such a remote location where there's nothing but a few dumping grounds in the vicinity?"

"It's not my place to question her orders," came the reply. "But if I had to guess, she would have anticipated that the Dominion troops would begin scouring the individual towns to begin looking for her. If so, the only safe haven would be the barren and desolated areas on Dead Man's Rock."

"Seems like a bad place to conduct military operations," the captain pointed out. "With no towns or even villages nearby, we'll be easily spotted."

"I doubt you'll be doing any military action at the meeting spot. Your wife would have thought of that already. I'm confident that once you two get reacquainted again, you'll both be heading to the larger towns."

Matt turned off the console without another word. He was still firmly opposed to the idea of seeing Mira again, but it was inevitable. The best thing to do now was hope that everything could be done as quickly as possible so he could get off this toxic wasteland.

* * *

**Dominion Command Center, Bel'Shir**

"I apologize for that, general," Dr. Collins said, as she entered the conference room once more. "I had to make emergency check-ups on our marine patient."

"Is he still in stable condition?" Madison asked.

"Yes, and I sedated him again to ensure he will remain asleep for several more hours," the doctor answered. "I was concerned that the terrazine might end up turning him against us."

"How so?" another doctor asked.

"When the general mentioned about the substance having the ability to regenerate brain cells, we simply assumed this is only capable of effecting ghost operatives due to their memory wipes," Collins said calmly. "The reality of the matter is there's actually another aspect we didn't think about."

Madison's eyes widened, immediately understand what Dr. Collins was getting at. "You refer to the neural resocialization the Dominion marines undergo, doctor?"

"Exactly, general," Collins replied. "I'm no expert on that, but even without the details, most of us are aware of the fact that the neural resocialization process shares a lot of similarities with the memory wipe that Dominion ghosts take. Under that logic, if the terrazine can affect ghosts and turn them against the Dominion, it may also have the ability to do the same thing to Dominion marines."

The general thought about it for a moment. "During the days of the Confederacy, neural resocialization was vital so that people would fill in the ranks for the marines and other military personnel. More than 99 percent of the men the Confederacy who had undergone this process were serial killers or psychopaths. Without it, they'd have gone completely psycho right away and gone on a killing spree with no control whatsoever. When the Dominion was formed, we were able present a better image and so volunteers were recruited into the marine corps, but this was only enough to drop the percentage of people subjected to the resocialization process from 99 percent to 95 percent. We claimed the program is a means of taking in criminals and redeeming them so that they'd receive new hope and a new beginning, but the higher ups knew all along this isn't too much different from what the Confederacy was doing."

"So how does the whole process work?" another doctor asked.

"In the simplest terms, it basically suppresses the memories of your previous life," Madison answered. "Once that's done, the resocialization will created false memories and print over your suppressed ones. It kept the marines in check while on the battlefield and therefore we never had to worry about the powder keg exploding."

"Could the powder keg be a problem if the process was reversed or in some other way undone?" Collins asked.

"It's certainly a possibility," the general admitted. "Most of the criminals have virtually no control over their temper or anything like that. The whole resocialization process is essentially the leash we have on them. If they found a way to cut the leash off, well the rest should be self-explanatory."

"Then I recommend orders be issued that all of the terrazine canisters be handled with extreme caution," the female doctor said.

"I was thinking the same thing, doctor. My opinion on this terrazine is that while it may have great benefits, it doesn't seem like it can be controlled. Whoever gets exposed to it seems to go all psycho and won't listen to anyone except for themselves, and that makes it a failure in my eyes. For that reason I just don't understand why the emperor is after the substance, especially after the disaster that happened during Project Shadowblade. Either he's found some way to control it or there's more to the picture that he's just not telling me because he thinks it's too much to handle."

"Well it's obvious he's hiding something," Dr. Collins said. "The only real question now is when he finally reveals it, will it truly be beneficial to us or not."

Madison nodded, before standing up from the conference table. "Continue the monitoring of our marine patient, doctor. I need to know just how long it'll take before his addiction to terrazine wears off. As for myself, I need to join up with the rest of my boys to continue the mining operation. I just hope it'll all be worth it in the end."

* * *

**Outskirts of Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

"This place is still in the exact same state from when I saw it from orbit last time," Jim commented, as he drove his Vulture hoverbike towards the outskirts of Tarsonis City. "Only the largest buildings are able to stand, and even they're all dilapidated. Just about everything else is total rubble."

"Yeah well you expected anything less? The Zerg did quite a number on the whole planet, the Confederate capital was no exception to the rule," Nova commented, riding in the backseat with him.

"Of course not. I'm actually surprised there's actually people living here right now. You'd think after what the Zerg did to Tarsonis no one would have the nerve to settle down here until they're fully convinced there's no more hostile threats."

"Speaking of hostile threats, I really hope the Dominion troops are the only ones we have to deal with," the blond ghost commented. "The Dominion made it clear that there might still be Zerg on Tarsonis."

"They're right," Jim agreed. "During the Brood War, Sarah had to relocate her primary hive cluster to Tarsonis to try and escape the UED using the Psi Disrupter and hampering her control over the broods. After it was destroyed on Braxis and the UED power base on Korhal had been broken, she transferred the hive cluster to Char instead."

"But she left a rearguard behind."

"Exactly. It was extremely small in numbers compared to the billions of Zerg we had to go up against on Char, but Sarah knew it would be some time before the former Confederate homeworld could be colonized again, at least on a massive scale. She told me that the Zerg here have been mostly quiet ever since the Brood War ended, and replenishing their larvae in an extremely slow state. Therefore, the numbers shouldn't have grown too much higher from the 75,000 she left behind. Still, that's more than enough to kill us all, so we have to be very careful."

"I'm surprised your last visit with the train robbing didn't attract their attention," Nova pointed out.

"I got lucky last time," Jim admitted. "Sarah told me the Zerg main hive cluster is located just outside Tarsonis City, and the rail network where the train robbing took place was too far away from the Zerg for them to care, so we only had to worry about the Dominion military. This time we may not be as lucky since whatever the Dominion is looking for appears to be in the city itself, so if too big a firefight breaks out, we'll attract their attention. If that happens, we may be forced to abort this mission so we don't all get killed."

"Then let's hope it doesn't come to that," the blond ghost said, as Jim stopped the hoverbike. Warfield's troops and vehicles stopped as well, as men began disembarking from the ground and air transports.

Jim stepped out, clutching his Mark XII Heavy Penetrator Commando Rifle. Despite its powerful penetrating power and capable of ripping through the head of an Ultralisk with ease, Nova was not as impressed as the rest of the troops. To be honest, she hadn't actually expected the rifle to have worked at all during the Char invasion, when Jim had used it to kill the Zerg attacking Warfield and his troops at the Helios crash site.

As she had seen all too often, when dealing with the Zerg and their vast numbers, it's the quantity of ammunition that makes the difference, not quality. The Mark XII Heavy Penetrator Commando Rifle only had a firing rate of 15 to 20 rounds per minute, which was completely ineffective in the face of mass Zerg attacks. In contrast, while her C-20 Canister Rifle had far less stopping power, it was capable of firing at well over 2000 rounds per minute, ideally suited in the face of concentrated attacks.

Still, there was still the hope that confrontation with the Zerg forces on Tarsonis could be avoided altogether, and Nova did not factor out that possibility. Unfortunately, this was not something completely within their control. Even if she, Jim, and the others proceed cautiously, there was still the possibility of Dominion troops they would go up against doing something stupid and setting the Zerg off.

"I have Dropships standing by to extract us out of the city if it comes down to fighting the Zerg," Jim said, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Failing that, at least they can keep providing us with ammunition drops so we can keep holding our positions against them."

"Commander Raynor, we have detected large numbers of Dominion troops moving in to Tarsonis City through the eastern suburbs," one of the officers nearby reported. "We should try to follow them as best as we can, then strike when they lead us to the source."

Jim nodded, before turning to Nova. "You know this city better than any of us here, Nova. Once the bullets start flying, I'll be heavily relying on your knowledge to get us out of jams."

"Don't worry about a thing, Jim," the blond ghost said. "We'll stay on constant radio contact, so even if we get separate I'll still be able to help you."

"Agreed," the commander said, before cocking his rifle and turning to the rest of his troops. "Begin our advance into what's left of Tarsonis City. It's time we wreaked some more havoc on the Dominion and weaken Mengsk's throne even more."


	60. Chapter 60

**Author's Note: Hey guys, I got the next chapter all readied for you. Didn't take too long for this one, and here you'll get to see some of the brutalities of the Dominion and everything. With Raynor moving into Tarsonis City last chapter, things will be stirred up rather quickly, and you'll see exactly what I mean.**

**In this chapter, the carnage begins...  
**

* * *

Chapter 60

**Paradise, Dead Man's Rock**

Captain Bock watched as the Dominion marines worked their usual brutal methods in questioning the citizens of Dead Man's Rock. It didn't bother him one bit. In fact, there were more than enough cases where he felt the marines were being too lenient on the citizens. They were all scumbags, criminals, traitors, and murderers. In addition, as this planet is a lawless world, it meant that they were not on any terran faction or anything like that.

On the other hand, one could argue that most of the Dominion marines were once serial killers and psychopaths as well, but they are serving under a government who's goal is to bring peace and prosperity to the Koprulu Sector. The people here at Dead Man's Rock, on the other hand, knew nothing about law and authority. All they cared about was finding a means to get by with their lives, and more often than not that didn't seem to work.

Upon entering the outskirts of Paradise, one of the planet's main settlements, the public immediately reacted with fear to the presence of Dominion troops. This was not something that surprised him, and he took great pleasure in such a sight. For years, the emperor had portrayed the Dominion marines as the most feared fighting force ever known, and to see the average citizens tremble before them gave the captain great satisfaction in knowing Mengsk's portrayal was vindicated.

Around him, Dominion marines were holding citizens at gunpoint and demanding answers. His squad was in one of the local bars, and a smaller one at that. Bock was disgusted at the sight of it all. At least with the bars and taverns on the Dominion Core Worlds, there was a sense of order to everything. Here, it seemed regular bar fights were normal on an everyday basis, which was exactly what his squad encountered when they first walked in.

The bar's prostitutes were no better. All of them cared nothing for the outside world, only their own individual lives. Seemed like the only thing on their minds all the time were flashing their bodies to mobs of drunken men so that they'd get credits in their pockets. A few of them were actually mothers with their own children, their home in the very tavern they're dancing at.

Bock shook his head, disgusted. Who would have thought it was actually possible to raise a family of any sort at all on this toxic dump? The children would be considered pretty lucky to even reach their teen years, and if by some miracle they reached adulthood, they'd just be a new generation of scumbags and scoundrels for the planet's population.

It was among the reasons why he pondered if after they had gotten the information they needed and taken care of business here on Dead Man's Rock, would General Ridgeway authorize the usage of the Apocalypse-Class Nuclear Weapons anyway. It certainly wouldn't be a total genocide or anything like that. They had only been supplied with three of them for this operation, which is far from able to kill off the entire Dead Man's Rock population anyway.

Hell, it was unlikely it could really make this place any worse than it already is. Famine had been a problem on this world for as long as anyone could remember, and illegal activities were the only way anyone could get by. Only the most powerful crime lords could have a life that even came close to resembling luxury, and such efforts take years of work before it could be put into motion.

To that end, Bock was more convinced that such an action would actually help the people here. The deaths caused by the nuclear blasts would undoubtedly have detrimental effects during the short run, but as time passes the sudden drop in population would help balance out the starvation problems on Dead Man's Rock. This would be among the few times the mercenaries would prove to be a benefit, as the captain knew they did not have to deal with something authoritative governments had to contend with on a daily basis: politics and bureaucracy.

As mercenaries weren't bound by laws of governments, they could care less about the rules and regulations. Although Bock knew the laws were in place for a reason, even he had to admit at times they had made the system of taking action less efficient than they needed to be. Of course, the mercenaries' actions had an even bigger negative impact if they didn't succeed, but every now and then when they did, the benefits could be plain for all to see rather quickly.

Besides, the public wouldn't denounce the Dominion for taking such an action on Dead Man's Rock. Although the vast majority of the Dominion population did not have a full idea of just what things were like on the planet, the one thing that they could all agree on was the fact that it Dead Man's Rock was a lawless world, a haven for pirates, spies, and smugglers. Dominion propaganda had portrayed them as resistant to authority for years, and that they would eventually be swiftly dealt with. This meant it would be nothing like the near genocide the Confederacy had conducted against Korhal back in 2491, when virtually the whole Korhal population was wiped out. Back then, the people had greatly backlashed the Confederacy, but there would be no such backlash here with the Dominion.

His was knocked out of his thoughts, however, when the scream of a woman was heard. Bock turned around to see one of the Dominion marines slam a local barmaid into the wall, his Slugthrower pistol aimed at her face.

"You're seriously trying my patience, lady," the marine growled. "If you think Dominion marines are just a bunch of morons, you're sadly mistaken. Now, I'm going to ask you again, where is Mira Han?"

"I swear, I don't know her!" the woman cried, only to receive a fist to her face. She fell to the floor, her nose bleeding.

"Don't lie to us," another marine spoke up, as he yanked the barmaid back up and slammed her into the wall again. "Mira Han has a very powerful mercenary fighting force on this planet. In fact, it's among the most powerful mercenary armies in the whole sector. It may be no match for the Dominion, but it's large enough. You expect us to believe you don't know a thing about it?"

"It's the truth! The people in this bar don't pay attention to these things!" The marine struck out, hitting the woman even harder this time. She sank to her knees, coughing up blood from her mouth.

"Your lies are just going to make things even harder on you," the marine said calmly. "Don't think for even a moment that we came here without the slightest clue about Dead Man's Rock. We know Mira Han based her forces at Deadman's Port."

"Then why come here? This is Paradise!" the woman gasped, still choking on her own blood.

"Because we also know that the people in this town have a bitter rivalry with those of Deadman's Port."

"That's only for the criminals!"

One of the marines nearby snorted. "And we're supposed to believe you're not? Look around you, lady. The whole planet is full of pirates and murderers!"

"Not all of us are like that!"

"So you keep convincing yourself," the first marine growled, his Slugthrower trained on her head again. "Now, given the rivalry, it's pretty clear the people of Paradise have to know certain people of Deadman's Port. Given how big a player Mira Han is, I'd say it's safe to assume you know something about her."

The barmaid struggled to her feet, trembling in fear at the gun pointed at her. "I swear, I've told you everything I know! Please, I have a family!"

"All you've told us so far is that you know nothing," Bock said, before gesturing to two Marauders nearby. Without a word, they turned around and exited the tavern. "Fortunately, we have ways to persuade you otherwise."

"What are you doing?" the woman asked in terror.

"The Dominion had learned very effective methods to get information out of people under interrogation," the captain answered, before the door entrance swung open. The barmaid gasped in horror. The two marauders came back inside, each holding two children by the throat and bringing them before her.

"As you can see, we have your four children right here in front of us," Bock said, before one of the marines pulled out his combat knife and pointed the tip at one of them. "If you won't give us the information to save yourself, perhaps you can be persuaded to save your children instead."

"But it's the truth!" she cried. "I really don't know anymore!"

Bock snorted. "Always have to be the stubborn one. Perhaps a firsthand demonstration of we mean business can change your mind."

With another gesture, the nearby marine holding the combat knife brought it down on one of the four children hard onto his wrist, cutting his hand right off his body. As the child screamed in pain, blood began to squirt out from his appendage.

"You bastard!" the barmaid screamed.

Bock chuckled. "You know, insulting a Dominion officer has its consequences too. Allow me to demonstrate."

The marine with the combat knife picked up another of the four children and slammed her onto a nearby table. Without the slightest hesitation and with the utmost efficiency, he cleanly cut off the little girl's right ear, leading to more screams of horror by the woman.

"Now maybe you'll finally start taking us seriously," Bock declared. "Because if you don't, then every time you give me an answer that I don't like, I'll simply have another limp cut off from one of your children. You know as well as I do that I can easily cut them out and leave them to bleed to death on the floor right here and now, so I suggest you cooperate or you're going to have to do a lot of burying soon."

* * *

**Raiders/Mercenary Rendezvous Point, Dead Man's Rock**

Sarah could feel the tension from everyone around her. It wasn't just from the Raiders and Warfield's troops, but also from Mira Han's soldiers. Upon exiting the Dropships, every one of them had been greeted by her mercenaries, though it was far from the pleasant reception anyone had been expecting.

Despite having been assured that there wouldn't be any hostile reception, the red haired ghost could easily see this was going to be no easy task. All of Mira's marines still had their trigger fingers steady on their AGR-14 Assault Rifles, while none of the marines with her eased their trigger fingers on their C-14 Gauss Rifles either.

She could easily see Matt was not coping well with this, having to deal with his wife in such a manner. Yet Kerrigan also saw that there was a major element of extreme uneasiness on Mira Han's face. Both of them were only a few feet from each other, standing in front of the troops they had each led here, yet neither one seemed to be ready to start the meeting. Both remained silent, somewhat lost in their own thoughts.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity of waiting, the silence broke. "This is not what I had been expecting when you said you had new soldiers that joined up with your Raiders, Matthew," Mira said calmly.

"Yeah well neither was I for your welcoming party," Matt shot back. "Considering half the troops here were once part of Orlan's forces, I'm surprised they aren't itching for revenge considering what your boys did to him."

"They're smart enough to know when their strength is strong enough for such a matter and when this would be utterly suicidal," the pink haired woman replied. "They pose no threat to me. The troops you have, on the other hand, is a completely different matter."

The young captain folded his arms. "You want to know why there's Dominion troops as part of the Raiders."

"Your message has been clear for years, Matthew. It had always been to bring down the Dominion government. This was still the case when you were here last time, asking what was taking Orlan so long with the Confederate Adjutant. Am I supposed to believe you all of a sudden abandoned your revolution?"

"Of course not. You said it yourself that you had seen the Korhal broadcasts that sent the Dominion into disarray," Matt explained. "Unfortunately, after that we had to turn our attention to the Zerg to stop their invasion. Eventually it reached a point where we realized the only way to make that happen was to temporarily put aside our differences."

"So you struck an alliance with the Dominion?" Mira was not pleased. "I'm surprised by this of you. You distrusted them for years, what changed your mind?"

"I still do, but Raynor was right in that it was the only chance we were going to get when it came to stopping the Zerg. Needless to say, the casualties had been appalling in the Char invasion, but we succeeded nonetheless. Afterwards, well let's just say the Dominion troops that took part in the invasion finally saw that the Raiders aren't the terrorists they had been led to believe by Dominion propaganda all these years. They joined up with our cause and are technically no longer part of the Dominion anymore, and our revolution continues to topple Mengsk and his government."

"And you think the Raiders' reputation will get ruined if people see they're working with my forces," Mira stated, shaking her head. "You need a serious reality check, Matthew. Do you really think we're all the monstrous savages the media has portrayed us as?"

"Well your actions in killing so many of Orlan's troops certainly vindicated plenty of it," Matt grumbled. "Your people are far too ruthless. If it weren't for Jim's direct order to come here, I would have nothing to do with you."

"Call them ruthless if you like, the fact remains they're still soldiers. We still have discipline and a loyalty to each other that holds us together when the going gets rough. Otherwise, we'd be nothing but a pack of armed thugs bent on killing anyone we saw."

"Way I see it, you _are_ nothing but armed thugs. I honestly don't see how the hell you'd function in a normal society if Dead Man's Rock suddenly became unavailable to you someday. You get on any civilized world, all of you would end up being either dead, in prison, or locked in insane asylums."

"And what makes you think you get to decide who is considered sane and who is considered insane?" Mira glanced briefly at Kerrigan, before turning her eyes back to Matt. "You've got the Queen of Blades herself here. I'm surprised you even allowed her to live after the Char invasion, let alone have her join your cause. Have you gone completely off the deep end?"

"Let's just say during our revolution, we came across events that a lot bigger than any of us had imagined," Matt replied. "Some of these things are so big, we need all the help we can get our hands on."

"So you're just going to trust her?" Mira was not one bit convinced. "After all the suffering and misery she caused, you honestly think she'd really help you?"

Sarah lowered her head a bit. The guilt of all the atrocities she had committed under the Zerg had not faded from her one bit, and she was once again being reminded of it all. And this time, she would have to bear it without any sympathizers. Much of the Raiders were still uncomfortable around her, and there was deep distrust still circling about among Warfield's troops. With Jim and Nova off to Tarsonis, there was no one around to defend her for everything she did.

The only one that seemed to show sympathy at all was Lieutenant Franklin, standing to the side with Warfield's marines. After saving his life on Agria and New Folsom, the man had developed a respect for her, although this wasn't shared by the men under his command. She couldn't blame them. After all the people she killed, families she ruined, and planets she destroyed as the Queen of Blades, even the mention of redemption only seemed to be wishful thinking.

Nevertheless, she would continue to press on. She had to show everyone in the Koprulu Sector that she was no longer the monster she once was under the Zerg. Whether they would accept it or not was another matter, but she had to send the message out.

"Well trust or not, it looks like I'm not going to have a choice in the matter," she heard Mira say. "Her mind's simply too powerful. Get on her bad side, and she could fry everyone's brains here with ease."

"It's something I'm concerned about as well," Matt said. "However, Jim made it clear for the Raiders to work with her on this mission so we can better understand her and be able to trust her without him being here, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

Mira shook her head, disgusted. "I have to tell you, Matthew. If this is your way of trying to bring unity to the people of Dead Man's Rock, then by all means, you've succeeded."

"What are you talking about?" Matt asked.

"Don't tell me you didn't hear of Zerg assault on this world," Mira said. When she saw her husband shake his head, she sighed. "About a year ago, the Zerg had attacked Dead Man's Rock. Rumor has it that they were looking for a terran archeologist by the name of Jake Ramsey and a woman named Rosemary Dahl. Apparently the former had some really important knowledge in his head, and they were technically hunted by the Dominion as well. The Zerg attacked Dead Man's Rock and abducted Ethan Stewart, a major crime lord here."

"What happened to him?"

"This is only speculation, but it was rumored that the Queen of Blades infested him, turning him into his personal servant of some sort. Later, when he was unable to deliver on her expectations, she simply abandoned him to his fate and left him to die, deeming him a failed experiment and an unworthy servant to her majesty."

Sarah closed her eyes in guilt. Mira was right in that matter, and it only deepened the remorse within her. Even after the promises of rewarding Stewart for his services, she betrayed him and left him to die at the Protoss Alys'aril Sanctuary on Ehlna at the hands of the Protoss without even the slightest consideration. The only thing she deemed successful was the infestation itself, where she hoped to create more consorts later to serve her.

She had been a traitor to everyone, even the very Zerg species she commanded. The suspicion everyone had on her wasn't misplaced. She hadn't even placed much value on the Zerg swarm itself during her time as the Queen of Blades, let alone anyone else. Like so many others, there were times where she saw them only as expendable assets, to be sacrificed for the greater good, which usually meant her personal gain for power. Everyone else she had barely spared a thought on.

Then, to her surprise, Franklin suddenly spoke up. "Look lady, you can say all you want about what she did during her time with the Zerg. The fact is that she's trying to make up for everything she did in the past, if you'd just let her."

"And how would you know that?" Mira folded her arms.

"I was there on Char when we succeeded in restoring her to human form again," Franklin answered. "I had fought alongside her to clear the Zerg from Agria, as well as to liberate New Folsom Prison. In both cases, she saved my life."

Mira snorted. "Or maybe that's just what she wants you to think so you'd lower your guard."

"It's certainly a possibility, I'll give you that," the man agreed. "But she saved the lives of many of my men in both cases. I'd say it's safe to give her the benefit of the doubt that she's a different person now."

The mercenary leader was about to object when Franklin continued, "You said it yourself that she could have killed all of us with ease, yet she did no such thing. If she was still the same person as when she was the Queen of Blades, do you really think she would have even hesitated?"

"When you're dealing with a woman like her, nothing is ever certain," Mira said.

"Maybe not, but you said it yourself that it's not like you're going to have much of a choice in the matter. Look, we can debate this all day, or we can focus on dealing with the Dominion troops here. I don't think it's a difficult decision."

The pink haired woman nodded in agreement. "Fine, I'll accept that." With a gesture of her hand, her mercenary marines about faced and began heading back towards their heavy transport ships.

"Follow the transport ships, Matthew," she instructed. "I'm taking you to the inner city regions of Paradise."

As the Raiders and Warfield's troops began heading back to their Dropships, Sarah asked Franklin to remain behind for a moment.

"Thanks for doing that," she stated quietly. "I didn't think anyone would after all the suffering and misery I caused."

"We all have to put our trust in you at some point," he said. "I was wrong about you on Agria, though it still wasn't really sinking in back then. After what I saw you do back at New Folsom, it's pretty clear you're not like that Zerg monster anymore."

"Yeah well convincing these mercs isn't exactly going to be easy, assuming I even succeed."

"They'll say otherwise once they work together with you," Franklin answered. "Without Raynor around to convince everyone to give you a chance, it's pretty obvious someone else has to. Otherwise, just having everyone accuse you of being too treacherous to be trusted, it'd be just too much."

"I can only hope they'll trust me enough for it," Kerrigan said, as she followed Franklin up the Dropship ramp. "Even mercenaries are still people."

"Let's hope Raynor was right about them," Franklin grumbled. "I still don't see them anything more than just cutthroats, so if that's true, working alongside them is going to make things very difficult."

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Kate Lockwell exited the Jitney vehicle with a few members of her UNN news crew. The rest of her news team were exiting the other Jitneys, while Dominion troops moved past them. Some of the marines, Reapers, and Marauders exited the Dominion personnel carriers, but others remained behind in their Stinger six-wheeled jeeps. Beside her, 12 foot tall Dominion Goliath walkers trundled past, and Dominion Hellions drove past her.

In front of her, Kate could see Colonel Kim barking out orders to the Dominion troops, as many of them began forming up into position.

"Is this all necessary?" the anchorwoman asked Lieutenant Corbin, walking up next to her.

"Right now we're only on the outer districts of Tarsonis City," he explained to her. "Our scans had indicated that a Zerg hive cluster is located right outside the city, so it's imperative that we have the option of moving fast and out of here, in case someone does something stupid and alerts the Zerg to our presence. That's why we brought in so many Stinger vehicles."

"What are they supposed to do?"

"These are actually very durable vehicles, Ms. Lockwell," Corbin answered. "It only takes one man to operate it, while one of the passengers can fire the 35mm High Explosive Cannon in the event of a Zergling rush."

"And that would get rid of all of them?" Kate asked nervously.

"Even if it doesn't, the Stinger is quite strong," the Dominion officer said confidently. "In the event the gun runs out of ammo and the Zerglings keep coming, we can floor it and squish right over them. The design does leave the occupants vulnerable to longer distance fire due to its lighter armor around the frame, but fortunately for us Zerglings don't have any ranged attacks so it doesn't matter anyway."

"You're wasting your time explaining to her, Corbin!" one of the marines from inside the Stingers shouted. "She'll have a better chance of seeing what these bad boys can do in action—"

Suddenly, the crack of a rifle was heard. The bullet pierced through the man's brain and the marine slumped forward, dead.

"Sniper fire!" a Dominion officer shouted. Immediately, all of the Dominion infantrymen on the ground began to panic, as no one could tell where the shot came from.

"It's coming from above!" Kim shouted, as an explosive round fired down from one of the dilapidated buildings, hitting one of the armored transports and killing everyone inside.

"Spray the buildings!" Corbin ordered, cocking his C-14 Gauss Rifle. Immediately, some of the Stingers opened fire with their 35 mm Cannons, targeting the ruins of every building with fire.

To everyone's disappointment however, they revealed no enemy hidden in the building ruins.

Kim immediately tapped her comm-link. "Give me status! Does anyone have a visual on the enemy?"

"Negative, Colonel," came the reply. "Whoever they are, they must be using cloaking equipment or something—" The voice was suddenly cut off by the crack of another sniper rifle fire.

"HQ, send Ravens to our position immediately!" a Dominion officer spoke into his radio, before turning to the rest of the troops. "Marines, use the Goliath walkers as cover from the snipers!"

But suddenly, another round fired from one of the ruined buildings, this time piercing the frontal hull of one of the Goliath walkers. Three marines who took place under it for cover were crushed as the mechanical walker toppled over.

At this point, another explosive round discharged, hitting one of the empty Jitney vehicles behind Kate and her UNN news crew. No one was injured, but the Jitney itself was instantly blown apart. As some of the UNN news crew ran for the other Jitneys, concentrated machine gun fire suddenly opened up and the other vehicles were riddled with bullet holes.

"They're coming from behind us!" one of the marines shouted, as a flyby of Banshees soared in from overhead. They unleashed their deadly payload, dropping incendiary rockets onto the Dominion troops' positions, killing even more marines in the process.

Kate stood frozen with terror, as did the rest of her UNN news team. Although many of her news broadcasts had taken her very close to the warzone, the fact remained that she had been relatively safe from harm. She could have chosen to move away from the battlefield whenever she wanted, that was never a problem.

This time, however, she was actually _part_ of the battlefield, and the enemy was effectively trying to cut off their means of pulling out of the city. Being only a reporter and having no experience when it came to war itself, she could only stand paralyzed with shock and fear.

"We have to move!" Corbin shouted, pulling on Kate's arm towards one of the Stinger jeeps. "This way Ms. Lockwell!"

Her senses finally coming back to her, Kate sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her towards the jeep, with the rest of her UNN staff following behind.

"We have to move further into the city now!" Kim shouted, running to get into one of the Dominion transports. "Goliaths, provide anti-air support and knock those Banshees out of the sky!"

As the Dominion transports struggled to get their engines started up, the mechanical walkers opened up with their hellfire missiles.

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

"Jim, it worked," Nova reported from one of the ruined buildings, brandishing her C-20 Canister Rifle. "Your Banshees are giving the impression that the withdraw route out of the city has been cut off, and it looks like all the Dominion troops are moving deeper into the city."

"Don't give them all the credit," Jim replied. "You did real good yourself with the sniping and killing some of the marines. You certainly sent the message of fear through them."

"You're not so bad yourself with that Mark XII Heavy Penetrator Commando Rifle of yours. I knew it was strong, but I didn't think a single shot could cut through the Goliath walker's frontal armor."

"The walkers had to be mass produced, that's why they had to be made cheaply. The frontal armor near the pilot's visor has be thinner than the other places since that's where the pilot needs to see."

"I'm surprised by you, Raynor," one of the marines commented. "We always thought of you as a desk commander who commanded troops from afar."

"You seriously underestimate him," Nova said smugly. "He's a soldier just like all of us. Just because he's led his Raiders for some time doesn't mean he's lost his touch on the field."

"Only thing I didn't really expect was the presence of UNN reporters," Jim observed. "You'd think such a Dominion military operation would be something kept secret."

"They usually are, sir," a Marauder explained. "Even during the occasional times were we allow UNN coverage, they barely get to scratch the surface, and sometimes are _never_ told the whole picture."

"So what made that change this time?"

"Well, everyone has limits to their patience, the UNN reporters and journalists are no exception to this. Most of the time they swallowed our reasoning of these military operations must not be publicly broadcasted or our enemies might be able to intercept them. If they do, it would have even further consequences. Of course, there were plenty of times where it wouldn't have really mattered, but we felt the media was digging too far into everything, and some of those things were simply not for the public to know."

Raynor snorted. "I'm sure many of those cases were simply because your emperor didn't want his people to know he made another discovery that he might be able to exploit and turn into a source of power to feed his lust. Still, I can kind of sympathize with the UNN people on the ground down there. You take away the media branches, the public wouldn't have any news to the outside world at all. With the Dominion military being so secretive about everything, eventually the people would get tired of all that and demand news and answers, instead of just being kept in the dark all the time."

Just then, a riddle of autocannon bullets whizzed past, causing many of them to duck for cover while killing a marine nearby, his body falling down from the ruined building rubble and tumbling down onto the street below.

"These Goliaths need a serious lesson in respect," one of the Marauders said angrily, before speaking into his radio. "Banshees, blow them apart!"

As the Banshees flew in low to unleash their backlash rockets, the Dominion Goliaths repeatedly fired up into the air with their hellfire missiles. Most were of no avail, as the Banshees pulled up just in time to avoid them, while their payload rained down on the mechanical walkers, destroying the majority of them.

However, one of the Goliath walker pilots proved to be a better shot than others, and was able to lead one of the Banshee planes right into the path of its line of fire. Before it succumbed to the other Banshees, it was able to let loose a hellfire rocket that hit the Banshee in its right rotor engine. Immediately, the plane caught on fire, as it tumbled out of the sky and fell towards the ground.

To Jim's shock, the downed Banshee tumbled and right into the direction of the Zerg hive cluster outside the city. He prayed it would land far enough away so that the Zerg wouldn't notice, but it proved to be wishful thinking. As the Banshee exploded in a fireball upon colliding with the ground, the rebel commander could hear the screams of Zerg creatures who had been unaware of its presence, and thus got incinerated in the process.

Almost immediately, movement activity on the radar spiked exponentially. All over the Zerg hive cluster, Roaches, Queens, and Ultralisks began to assemble together, whilst Zerglings and Hydralisks began to scurry towards the city perimeter.

"Everyone, follow the Dominion forces into the city right away!" Jim ordered, as Nova and the others immediately began to move down from their hiding spots in the ruined buildings. "We have to find a place to hole up and establish a defensive position!"

"Think they'll go after just us and not the Dominion troops?" a marine asked nervously.

"Well there's enough Zerg in that hive cluster to kill both our forces," Raynor answered. "Come on, let's get out of here. The Dominion just stirred up the hornet's nest, I sure don't want to be around when the Zerg arrive at this place."


	61. Chapter 61

**Author's Note: So with the battle on Aiur mostly done, I thought it was wrong to just have the Protoss swept to the side while the other missions are being played out, so I decided to include them in. You'll get a better perspective on how they're taking all this now that the Zerg threat to Aiur is mostly gone.**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 61

**Aiur**

Behind the Protoss warriors, Felanis observed the actions of the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss as they continued to fight with ferocity to hunt down the scattered remnants of the Zerg still present on Aiur. From all across the planet, news was pouring in that the Zerg forces were being eliminated, and whatever hiding spots they still had left were rapidly diminishing. Soon there would be nowhere left for the vile creatures to run, and the Protoss homeworld would be fully purged of their presence.

Yet he couldn't shake the feeling of uncertainty. According to what he had heard from the members of the Protoss Hierarchy, the Zerg are not the true enemy of the Protoss. The ancient Xel'Naga prophecy has made it clear that there was something else out there, manipulating everyone to its own advantage. That the former Queen of Blades was meant to prevent the outcome of Armageddon made even less sense, but he had concurred with the Hierarchy that such a possibility could not be factored out.

Much of the Khalai Protoss tribes were not ready to accept Kerrigan as their savior given everything she had done to them in the past, but they too did not factor out the possibility in itself. The Nerazims were in a similar state of agreement, but their anger towards the former Queen of Blades had not faded. This of course was understandable, after what she had done to Raszagal, and this was something that the former Tal'darim leader did not feel would fade away with time, regardless of Kerrigan's actions.

As for Kerrigan herself, he had been informed by Artanis of the immense measure of guilt she now carried after everything she had done. There were virtually no Protoss that felt any sympathy towards that, which was understandable, but the fact remained that something had to be done to pull her off this destructive path. It wasn't to help her, but as of this moment no one could confirm the Xel'Naga prophecy nor falsify it. In the former's case, if Kerrigan did not have the will to do what was necessary, then she may fail in her assigned role as savior.

Yet not everything Nahaan had informed him was complete nonsense. Despite the fact that the Xel'Naga relic appeared to have restored the former Queen of Blades to her human form, there was no evidence to suggest this was entirely the case. Since arriving on Aiur, there had been no sign that she was mutating back into that vile Zerg creature, but nothing was certain. The remaining Zerg blood still present within her meant that caution was still necessary as it was entirely possible the Zerg influence was still affecting her judgment and behavior. James Raynor felt otherwise, but Nahaan was right in that his feelings for the former Queen of Blades was making him too sympathetic towards her. This was exactly the reason why he had been fooled by her during the Brood War, and Felanis was unsure of James Raynor had learned his lesson from that or not. The terran commander may have been correct in that he knew what she was like prior to infestation, but after four years, Felanis was not convinced that he knew the former Queen of Blades as he used to anymore.

To that end, the terran's argument that only he knew what Kerrigan was like would not hold as much weight as he believed, and Felanis knew that in time, more and more Daelaam Protoss would point that out to him.

Thus it would be essential that they return from their missions that caused both of them to leave Aiur for. He did not understand why Zeratul requested their presence at the husk of the Overmind, but there were some reasons that were better to be left unsaid.

"There are many of us who wish to know more about the prophecy at hand, Felanis," a voice spoke out from behind him. "Yet we must not be too hasty in our attempt to uncover the truth."

The former Tal'darim leader turned around to see Executor Selendis walk up to him, having left her massive golden Carrier. "You should not be here like this, Selendis," he said calmly. "You are among the best students Hierarch Artanis has. He would not want you to put your life at risk."

"All of our lives are at risk, one way or another," the female executor stated. "Even with the loss of the Queen of Blades and the cleansing of their presence on Aiur, the Zerg remain every bit as dangerous. Our war with them is still far from over. In fact, if the prophecy that mighty Zeratul has uncovered proves to be true, then our ordeals have only just begun."

"You appear to be more convinced of the prophecy than others," Felanis observed. "I am surprised at this of you. Many Protoss, both Khalai and Nerazim alike, still harbor the hope that what Zeratul discovered on Ulaan could be falsified so that the former Queen of Blades could be brought to justice."

"I am in agreement with them to that part, but nothing we have learned since the news regarding the prophecy has been brought to our attention seems to prove anything towards falsification. What Zeratul has discovered from the Overmind only seems to confirm its validity."

"That information gathering is not complete though."

"This is why massed numbers of our fleet have been dispatched to its rotting corpse and to eradicate any remaining Zerg still defending their dead master. When the time comes to extract memories from its cortex once more, the Zerg must not be allowed to interfere with the process."

"What do you hope to discover?"

"It is hard to say," Selendis admitted. "It is still my hope that if proven true, then perhaps it would be a sign to the Daelaam Protoss that a greater understanding of the terran female gender is necessary."

"We had encountered very few female terrans," Felanis agreed. "A year ago, there was one such terran by the same of Rosemary Dahl who had arrived on Aiur. She was accompanied by the male terran Jake Ramsey, who possessed the essence of a Protoss preserver named Zamara."

"I had met up with both of them," Selendis explained. "Rosemary Dahl had been brought to Shakuras, along with some of the surviving members of the Tal'darim here on Aiur. We had purged them of their addiction to the Sundrop substance, which she claimed she had been subjected to as well."

"She was. Alzadar and I had personally exposed her to it, as it was our belief that the substance would cause her to crave more of it. In this we had hoped she would bring us the preserver that our Xava'tor had desired."

"Ulrezaj wanted her to be killed because of the knowledge she possessed," Selendis replied. "Fortunately, with the help of the Alysaar, we were able to transfer Zamara's essence into a fragment of the Khaydarin Crystal, the very piece she had carved from the massive crystal that resided within the ancient Xel'Naga caverns that lie beneath the surface of Aiur. Ulrezaj too had been imprisoned within it, but now we have confirming evidence of his escape."

"It is something the Tal'darim on Aiur look forward to their retribution," Felanis explained. "They are still uneasy about joining hands with the Daelaam Protoss, having been separated from the Dark Templar for so many ages."

"Still you hold on to elements of the ancient traditions," the female executor shook her head. "The Nerazim tribes are far more understanding, especially when it comes to the capabilities of the individual."

Off of Felanis's confused look, Selendis continued, "Before the fall of Aiur, the Conclave refused to the position of leadership within the Protoss ruling body to female Protoss. The Dark Templar never harbored such a restriction. Even as the Zerg continued to spread chaos across our homeworld, the Conclave continued to believe their decisions were the right ones and refused to listen to the opinions of others, especially those of the female gender. They saw us as too weak and incapable of carrying out their requests, regardless of the circumstances. Had it not been for their dissolution after many of the Khalai refugees had withdrawn to Shakuras, I would not hold the title I have today, regardless of my capabilities as a Protoss templar warrior."

"The Conclave had its moments of shortsightedness," Felanis agreed. "I did not see it that way until after being abandoned on Aiur, and the Shel'na Kryhas had been formed. As a judicator of the Ara Tribe, I had commanded great authority during the golden days. After the Zerg infestation of our world and entire Protoss civilizations reduced to fending for themselves, such authority became meaningless. It was only then that I had personally experienced the feeling of being judged by higher authorities."

"Nahaan and his Ara Tribe are still unable to let it go," the Protoss executor said in frustration. "Despite numerous requests to be granted a greater say in matters during the Hierarchy meetings, it had been clear to the majority of us that the truth behind his message was that he wanted the Ara Tribe to regain their dominance within the Protoss ruling body and return it to the ways the Conclave had in the past."

"He had spoken to me about this as well. As a former Ara Tribe Protoss, Nahaan had hoped that I would understand and support him in this endeavor. He also hoped that I would rally other Protoss to his cause in bringing immediate and swift justice to the former Queen of Blades. As a judicator, Nahaan believed that I would be very influential towards the Tal'darim here on Aiur in that aspect."

"His second belief is not completely unjustified," Selendis said calmly. "There are many Daelaam Protoss who are concerned that Kerrigan's influence on James Raynor is too strong than he would care to admit. The sheer lack of experience in encountering and dealing with female terrans is only compounding matters."

"I would not blame them," the male Protoss replied. "Nahaan informed me that the Protoss had trusted the Queen of Blades during the Brood War four years ago, and that came extremely close to leading the entire Protoss population on Shakuras to extinction. Under that logic, the risks would simply be too high to trust other female terrans as if they are all like the Queen of Blades, it could mean the total eradication of the Protoss race."

"Such were on the minds of the Protoss Hierarchy when the female terran Rosemary Dahl had been brought before us. There were those that did not believe in trusting her after the impressions that Kerrigan had left on all of us. Nevertheless, she was able to convince us to turn our attention to saving the life of Zamara. She had even assisted us in safeguarding the sacred Khaydarin Memory Crystals within the Alys'aril Nexus on Ehlna from the vicious attacks of the Zerg swarm. In the end, she had proven herself to be a worthy ally of the Protoss, and it was from that experience that led many of us to reconsider the characteristics of terran females, despite the fact there were still so very few of them we had encountered."

"And what do you make of the encounter with the former Queen of Blades recently?" Felanis asked.

"She is difficult to read," the female executor admitted. "I had been greatly concerned that she would try to manipulate the mind of Hierarch Artanis just as she had to Raszagal during the Brood War, and even more so when Zeratul mentally touched her mind to find more answers. Clearly whatever he had uncovered had deeply shaken him. Nevertheless, I have great respect for Zeratul, and I believe in his words when he stated that Kerrigan regretted everything she had done to our people."

"Were you not even suspicious that she may have corrupted his mind?"

"Of course I considered that," Selendis answered. "But Kerrigan had released the psychic barriers and fortifications within her mind during the meeting, and we were all free to look to search for any signs of deception and treachery. She even admitted if we were to have her killed this way, she would accept it. Clearly she believed that we would have simply dismissed the Xel'Naga prophecy and have executed her right then and there."

"Many of us still see it that way," Felanis said. "While I believe we must first determine the details of the prophecy first, I am in agreement with Nahaan that justice be carried out against her once she has served our purpose."

"This has been something that Vartanil had been continuously trying to explain to all of us. He feels that the Zerg infestation that Kerrigan had been subjected to is similar in the way that the Tal'darim had been subjected to the sundrop substance. If that is true, then she would have been nothing more than a tool for the Zerg."

"I can somewhat see his logic, but I find it too distant to be related. As the Tal'darim, we had been loyal to our master Ulrezaj and had killed Zerg in accordance to his orders, yet we did not commit acts of destruction on a genocidal scale as the Queen of Blades had."

"I am inclined to see the same way," Selendis mused. "James Raynor is hoping that other Protoss would see similarly as Vartanil had, but this is extremely unlikely. At best, I can only see this possible in the case with the Tal'darim on Aiur as they had personally experienced corruption by the Sundrop substance. None of the other Daelaam Protoss would be able to relate to such a matter."

Felanis thought about this for a moment, before speaking back up, "Vartanil was one of the Protoss who had personally fought alongside the former Queen of Blades during the assault on the corpse of the Overmind. What did he discover about her from that?"

"She is very pessimistic about the future. She feels that her actions as the Queen of Blades had permanently scarred the Protoss, and that nothing she does now or in the future would earn redemption. Vartanil believed that given enough time the Protoss would eventually forgive, but she wasn't convinced by it."

"Then do you believe Vartanil is simply too sympathetic towards her?"

"It is certainly a possibility," Selendis agreed. "A year ago, the Protoss Hierarchy was understanding towards him in showing similar sympathy towards the female terran Rosemary Dahl, but Artanis had warned him that his fondness for terrans must not override his loyalty as a Protoss. I am concerned that if Kerrigan is not what James Raynor believes she is right now, that Vartanil could be easily manipulated and deceived by her. This is something that the Hierarchy is still in debate about, with regards to state of female terrans as a whole."

Felanis was confused. "I do not understand."

"Rosemary Dahl had given the Hierarchy a slight pause for thought to determine if the female terrans were all like the Queen of Blades, but recent actions during the Zerg invasion had planted doubt amongst the Protoss once again," Selendis explained. "On Haven, James Raynor did not choose to defy my own forces of his own free will. Rather, he had been convinced by the female terran Ariel Hanson. Due to his past services to the Protoss, we had considered him a hero, yet Ariel Hanson asked James Raynor to turn his weapons against our forces because she believed there was another way to deal with the Zerg infestation to her people."

"You had said his actions was later vindicated," Felanis pointed out.

"That is beside the point," the Protoss executor replied. "Haven is a Protoss world, and we would never have allowed it to become infested by the Zerg. My method in purification by fire would have eradicated the Zerg hive spores, whereas the terran Hanson could provide no such guarantee. Under that logic, the risks should have been too high to trust in her, yet James Raynor chose to believe her anyway. Her actions may have proved a success in containing the infestation, but this was not known until later. To that regard, I did not see the female terran any better than the Queen of Blades, manipulating James Raynor into doing her bidding."

"And you believe Kerrigan is still doing similarly to him." It was more of a statement than a question.

Selendis nodded. "James Raynor had always been able to do what was necessary in times of need, but with regards to the Queen of Blades, it would appear to be the exception. If there had not been the Xel'Naga prophecy, I am not entirely convinced that he would be able to take her life to preserve the lives of others. It was upon this doubt that Kerrigan had played on him during the Brood War, and many Protoss saw this as a sign of weakness that must be eliminated from him. There is not enough evidence to suggest that the former Queen of Blades has truly changed, and caution must be taken to ensure that she would not turn James Raynor against us."

"That is still open to debate," Felanis said. "From what I had been informed from Zeratul, it would appear Kerrigan's feelings towards James Raynor is every bit as strong as his for her. If she is no longer the wretched creature she once was, the possibility that she has his best interests at heart cannot be factored out."

Selendis did not look convinced. "That is something that can be determined at a future time. For now, we wait for James Raynor to return to Aiur from whatever mission he has been called to. It is my hope that once we return to the Overmind's body, we will be able to see Tassadar once again. Perhaps he would be able to shed light and reason on everything that had come to pass."

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

"We've got more Mutalisks incoming!" a Dominion officer shouted. "Marines, hold the line! Don't let them through!"

From behind the lines, Kim scowled in frustration. Her forces where being steadily worn down by the continuous attack waves the Zerg keep throwing at them. Although sandbags had been put up to offer better protection to the infantry, this was only true in the case of ground assault waves. In the case with air attacks, the sandbags could offer no protection at all.

Clearly despite their major defeat on Char, the Zerg remain every bit as deadly. The Stinger vehicles had proven their worth during the initial assault waves, their 35mm high explosive cannon ripping individual Zerglings to shreds long before they could come anywhere near the Dominion marines. Auto turrets had been deployed by the Ravens and added their wall of lead to the Zerg ground threat. Most of the Hydralisks were torn apart before they could get within range to discharge their deadly needle spines. The Roaches proved to be a much tougher adversary, however, as many of them burrowed under the surface and began to move towards their defensive positions.

Fortunately, thanks to the presence of the Ravens, their movements were quickly detected, and the Siege Tanks that had been deployed opened up with their shock cannons. Only a few of the Roaches were able survive the bombardment, and those that emerged from the surface were blown apart by Marauders firing from their Punisher grenade launchers. The Zerg attacks were contained, and many marines were very optimistic about the outcome.

That mood quickly faded, however, as scanners indicated massed formations of Zerg air units heading towards their position. Despite the continued air support from the Goliath walkers, the Mutalisks proved simply too many in number. Massed Zergling attacks continued, but to some of the Dominion troops on the ground, something didn't seem to add up.

The Zerg were known for their flanking maneuvers in battle. Despite the fact that the Dominion troops had fortified their position with their backs to one of the still standing but dilapidated buildings within the city, there were still many different angles the Zerg ground attack waves could come from. Yet all of them all seemed to attack from one direction.

Kim was pondering this when an enormous explosion suddenly knocked her off her feet. As she struggled to stand up, she saw Dominion marines were running about in all directions, and a huge blackened crater was now present well within the confines of their defensive position.

"Status!" she ordered. "What the hell just happened?"

"The Zerg attack wave is withdrawing, but their air attacks just took out one of our main ammunition stockpiles," a Dominion officer reported. "We've got more than 20 injured, but no one was killed, surprisingly enough."

"What about our ammunition supply?"

"The stockpile that the Zerg just destroyed mostly consisted of the 35mm high explosive rounds for our Stingers," came the reply. "Without them, they'll be easy pickings for Roaches and Hydralisks."

"And our Hellfire Missile stocks for our Goliaths?"

"Most of the Mutalisks attacks concentrated on them in order to keep them distracted," the officer answered. "Most of the flyers were shot down, but it would appear they served their purpose. Many of our walkers are in need of repair, and their missile stocks are starting to get low. It's pointless to try to request more ammunition drops by our Dropships right now, the Zerg are waiting for that. Scanners indicate that there's still hundreds of Scourges positioned near our area, so sending any air transport down here is near suicide, the flying Zerg critters will blow them apart with ease."

Kim sighed in frustration. "What's the status on the Zerg attacks on our position now?"

"It appears another group of flyers is heading towards the ones that just withdrew. We can expect another attack wave in less than 30 minutes from now."

"Why are the Zerg attacking in waves? What's stopping them from sending everything they've got at us all at once?" one of the Dominion marines asked.

"I'd say we got lucky, at least for now, soldier," Kim answered. "Looks like the Zerg critters are just probing us, trying to determine how many men we've got and how much ammunition we have to shoot at them. That attack on our ammunition dump was an attempt to weaken us."

"How could they know that was ammunition?" the marine protested. "The Zerg are nothing but a bunch of dumb animals!"

"Never underestimate your opponent in battle," the colonel said. "You're assumptions are just wishful thinking. You fight the Zerg long enough, you'd know they too use clever tricks and deception on the battlefield."

At this point her comm-link went off. "Colonel Kim, we have identified one of the attackers that was shooting at us when we entered the outer edges of Tarsonis City."

"I told you taking the body of that marine that slid down from one of the ruined buildings would come in useful eventually. Now, what did you find out?"

"Are you sure you want to hear it? I don't think you're going to like this, ma'am."

"Right now I could use a break from all the Zerg attacks, so spill already."

"It's confirmed that the marine we killed was part of the Dominion Marine Corps."

Kim was shocked. "How is that possible? Why would our own men be shooting at us? If Dominion marines had gone rogue they would have been put down right away for treason!"

"I did some digging in the database. It looks like this particular marine had been part of General Warfield's forces for the Char invasion a little while back. The surviving Dominion troops in the aftermath of that invasion had turned against the Dominion, so there's only one possible explanation."

The colonel gritted her teeth in anger. "They're now part of Raynor's Raiders, which means James Raynor must be here, on Tarsonis. He is the one who ambushed us."

The voice on the other end went on to explain the implications of this, but Kim wasn't paying any attention to it. Mengsk had given her sufficient forces to command in the event that Raynor would come here and disrupt their salvaging operation, but the Zerg wasn't part of the plan. Now much of the energy that was supposed to used to deal with the rebel commander instead had to be diverted to handle the constant Zerg attacks, and there was no telling when the attacks may stop.

"Colonel, it may not be as bad as we think. The Zerg aren't going to distinguish which faction we're on. All they're going to see is uninvited terrans on Tarsonis, nothing more. Therefore, they wouldn't gather all their strength and focus only on us. I'm sure Raynor and his boys are taking every bit a beating as we are right now. If we get lucky, maybe we can get the Zerg to do the dirty work for us."

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

"We're not going to be able hold out much longer here!" an officer shouted, as Hydralisk spines tore past him, killing a marine nearby. "We need to move deeper into the city where it'll be harder for the Zerg to get at us!"

Jim looked around him and saw that the whole situation was a mess. Despite the continued support from the Banshees, the Zerg attacks continued and many of them were now within striking distance and tearing at the defenders. The Vikings continued to put up a wall of lead from their gatling cannons, but the Zerg numbers were simply too many. More and more Zerglings and Hydralisks were getting through, and the marines were forced to engage them at near point blank range, often with disastrous results.

An enormous explosion rocked the battlefield as the Reapers detonated the D-8 charges. Pieces of Zerglings, Roaches, and Hydralisks went flying, but this only slowed down the Zerg attacks briefly. As the smoke cleared, it only revealed more of them in the distance, accompanied by Infestors and moving towards their defensive position.

From her elevated position from above, Nova was doing her best in sniping the Zerg, but by now they were starting to smarten up. Ultralisks were being dispatched and heading towards their positions, with many of the Zerglings, Roaches, and Hydralisks hiding behind it and using the behemoths as a protective shield. Due to their extremely thick carapace, the rounds fired from the blond ghost's C-20 Canister Rifle had little effect against them.

Raynor himself fared slightly better, as the rounds from his Mark XII Heavy Penetrator Commando Rifle were strong enough to pierce an Ultralisk's brain. However the rifle's slow firing rate proved to be a weakness that the Zerg were thoroughly exploiting. It wasn't that the rifle couldn't do its job, it was that it couldn't do its job fast enough. By now, dozens of Ultralisks were heading directly towards their position.

Further explosions shook the battlefield as Zerg Banelings exploded. Some of them prematurely, their sacs detonated by the bullets fired by auto turrets deployed by the Ravens. But others were able to get within closer range and detonate directly on the sandbags the infantry were firing behind from, sending marines, Marauders, and Reapers hurling off their feet.

Firebats were letting loose the flames with everything they had, and Pygalisk after Pygalisk succumbed to their perdition flamethrowers, as their carapaces were even weaker than that of a Zergling. However their sheer speed compensated for that, and the Reapers were continuously called upon to give support with their P-39 pistols, lest the creatures get within striking distance and detonate the Firebats' fuel tanks.

Some of the specialized Firebats had napalm rocket firing systems built into their CMC-660 Armor, and they were deployed alongside the Goliath walkers to deal with the heavier Zerg threats. Although their napalm rockets weren't strong enough to quickly burn through the Ultralisks' carapace, the sheer amount of fire caused from the explosions did force them to slow down somewhat as the smaller Zerg critters advancing behind them were briefly disoriented by the fire.

Flaming Betty turrets added their fire to the defenders, but here too the Zerg quickly exploited the turrets' weakness. Despite the efforts made by Rory Swann to turn them into a capable killing machine, their programming were still unable to tell apart the individual threat levels in the event of vast numbers. For that reason, mass swarms of Zerglings were being sent in so that the Flaming Betties would waste all their fire against them, while Roaches and Hydralisks were diverted elsewhere towards the marines.

"Status!" Jim shouted at one of the Dominion officers. "Have you located a good spot for us to withdraw to yet?"

"Yes, sir. It's more than 20 miles from our location, but the place is completely rubble strewn. It'll give us more cover instead of here, where we're more exposed out in the open."

"Then that's where we're going," Jim said. "We've already got most of the boys waiting in the vehicles, so begin the withdrawal of the frontline troops now. Nova and I will cover you guys."

With the Zerg attack waves temporarily stalled, everyone shuffled into the vehicles and Dropships as quickly as possible. No one dared waste a moment, as any second from now the Zerg could come again and finish them off.

However, as Jim and Nova prepared to get in the last Vulture hoverbike and leave, the earth beneath them suddenly began to shake. The blond ghost instantly knew what was coming, and to make matters worse, the tremors appeared to be directly underneath them, which meant that the Zerg were threatening to cut them off from the rest of the troops.

Thinking quickly, she channeled her psionic powers and telekinetically lifted Jim up, throwing him towards the last Dropship still on the ground.

The rebel commander was horrified. "What are you doing?"

"Go! I'll find another way!" Nova shouted, running towards the Vulture bike.

Before Jim had any chance to protest. the Zerg Nydus Worm erupted from the ground. Its massive biological mouth opened, and Jim could hear the Zerg creatures from within. A pair of hands grabbed him from behind.

"There's no time, sir!" One of the marines shouted, before turning his head to the cockpit. "We have to get out of here now! Pilot, get this bird into the air before we're all Zerg chow!"

"No! Nova!" Jim screamed as the Dropship lifted off, leaving the blond ghost behind as Zerglings, Roaches, and Ultralisks emerged from the Nydus Worm. This was not a déjà vu moment he wanted to relive, in fact it's probably the one that haunted him the most. The trauma of Kerrigan being abandoned at New Gettysburg to the Zerg had been almost too much for him to bear, and now he had to experience almost the exact same thing happening with Nova.

He could only pray this time the outcome would be different. Failing to save Kerrigan all those years ago had left him emotionally scarred in ways he never thought possible, and the last thing he wanted was to see history repeating itself in that aspect.


	62. Chapter 62

**Author's Note: This chapter was supposed to have gone up a few days ago, but work schedules made that impossible. Anyways in this chapter I hope develop a little bit on Matt and Mira's relationship. A lot of people feel it may be too weird to work, but there's plenty of things in the Starcraft universe that's considered weird.**

**Blackhole1, you took the easy way out with their relationship by simply having Mira killed in your chapter 42 so that Matt could avoid the whole ordeal altogether. I won't give him a similar escape route, at least not so easily.  
**

* * *

Chapter 62

**Medbay, Dominion Base, Bel'Shir**

Dr. Collins paused for a moment at the entrance to her patient's door. Although the last check up hadn't caused any problems, there were no assurances that this time would be the same. The last time she was here was about four hours ago, when the marine patient was still asleep. By now, the sedatives and tranquilizers would have begun to wear off, which means it's likely that her patient would be awake.

Still, she hoped her patient would be smart enough to not go all psycho on her if he has the strength to. She had armed guards posted right outside the room, and they were ready to step in at a moment's notice in the event something begins to go wrong.

She used her ID to open the outer door and exchanged a few words with the marines posted outside. They gave her a curt nod before stepping aside, allowing her access to her patient. He was awake, but thankfully was still lying quietly on the hospital bed, his eyes staring upwards at the ceiling.

"Dr. Collins, you here for another checkup?" One of the doctors in the room asked.

"Along those lines," the female doctor answered. "Please leave me with our patient, I would like to speak to him alone."

The Dominion doctors nodded, as they began to leave. "Just be careful, all right? We'll have the marines outside be alerted in the event anything goes wrong."

Dr. Collins waited until they had all left, and the door slid shut behind them, before pulling up a chair and sitting down near the bed. "I'm glad to see you're not causing any trouble like last time, private Jenkins."

"Not exactly in a position to," the marine grumbled. "You medics dosed me with so much sedatives and tranquilizers that I can hardly move right now."

"I apologize for any discomfort you may be feeling, but it's for your own good," Collins assured. "The exposure to the terrazine gas probably had a greater effect on you than most of us even realize."

"Like what?" Jenkins demanded angrily. "If you're talking about addiction, don't tell me you've never heard of marines using stimulants before."

"It's not exactly something you _want_ to be addicted to," the doctor said, shaking her head. "You can say all you want about the benefits it has on the battlefield, but the fact remains that if you use it for too long it'll cause tissue damage to your entire body. On the other hand, the terrazine gas got you addicted within just a few seconds of inhalation."

"You have no idea what it felt like," her patient countered. "It gave me far more satisfaction than the other stimulants I've taken in the past."

"Yeah I've seen your record," Collins stated calmly. "I know you were a drug addict when you were young, gotten into all sorts of trouble in stealing drugs from wherever you could get your hands on. Though it looks like your stimulant activity dropped after you became part of the Confederate Marine Corps."

"Some habits don't die as easily," Jenkins said. "It took some time before the local authorities caught up with me. When they did, they put me in a prison cell where I was to serve a 25 year sentence. Of course, later on and the threat of total war became more and more imminent, well let's just say my sentence got modified."

"It still doesn't change the fact that you're one of the countless numbers of criminals the Confederacy took from the prisons and subjected you to the neural resocialization process. After the establishment of the Dominion and you becoming a Dominion marine, it looks like the resocialization process was still on people's minds."

"They told me it was better than the Confederacy's ways because I'd have a chance at a normal life once I proved myself and do my duty," the marine replied. "I just didn't get much of a chance to prove that because after the so called Brood War the Dominion Marine Corps went into a state of quietness for the next four years."

Collins shook her head. It amazed her at just how easily people like Jenkins could be manipulated and deceived. "I'm surprised at this by you. According to the records, you're considered one of the more intellectual marines, which would give you a greater chance of being promoted, instead of just the average grunt who doesn't understand anything except who to fire his weapon at."

"What are you getting at?"

"Well we can drop the subject of what you think of proving yourself in the marine corps, I'm not here to argue that. If you're really as intellectual as the records indicate, by now even you should know that the terrazine gas that you were exposed to has made you act very abnormally."

"I've seen strange visions and heard strange voices," Jenkins admitted. "I tried to tune them out, but they just kept replaying in my head over and over again. Yet at the same time, the gas that I inhaled seemed to offer me some sort of comfort or something, like some sort of soothing feeling to my brain. I can't quite describe it, it's something you just have to feel to understand."

The female doctor nodded in understanding. General Madison's explanations about what he had dug up about the terrazine substance seem to match with what her patient was telling her in terms of what he was experiencing upon being exposed to it. So far, it seems like Jenkins is trying to regain control of himself, but on the other hand this could all be a trick to get her to lower her guard.

"These hallucinations and such that you experienced are similar to stimulant drugs of terran origins," she said. "Terrazine does the same thing, just at a much faster rate. Nevertheless, it has the same weakness just like any other drug: you don't take it for long enough, and you'll overcome the addiction."

"But it's like nothing I ever felt before!" Jenkins protested. "Why are you asking me to give that up?"

Collins sighed. "I spoke with General Madison about it, and he found out some information regarding the terrazine. Let's just say the Dominion has experimented with this substance before, and the end results were disastrous."

The marine raised an eyebrow. "Suppose I believe you. If that's true, why were we ordered here to collect more on the emperor's orders?"

"I don't know the details to that," the doctor admitted. "He hasn't said anything beyond the fact that this will help him reestablish control over the Dominion worlds once again. The way I see it, all I can say is that whatever his plans are, it's not meant to expose Dominion marines to this substance, at least not in this manner. You went completely out of control when you inhaled it, and I'm concerned that anyone else who gets exposed to the terrazine substance will react in the same way. For that reason, until you are free of the addiction, you could be a liability on the battlefield and a danger to those around you, and that's something we simply cannot risk."

Jenkins exhaled in frustration. "I'm not stupid, doctor. You're referring to when I attacked people with a scalpel, which led to me being sedated. What kind of a threat am I supposed to pose? You and the rest of the medical team have me on tranquilizers that it's hard enough just to stay awake, let alone move around and do anything."

"I want to believe you," Collins said gently. "I really do. But cautions are necessary. Right now, we simply don't know how long it'll take before your addiction to the terrazine will wear off. Maybe you're right and these steps are unnecessary. But if we're wrong, sending you back out onto the battlefield would be a danger to all of us. Remember, whatever our military strength on Bel'Shir is, it's simply too weak for any fighting against the remaining Tal'darim Protoss on this moon. Everyone who steps out onto the battlefield has to be extremely careful of what they're doing, lest we get spotted. With the state you're in, the Dominion officers will never agree to have you suit back up."

Slowly, she rose from her seat and stated for the exit door. As the door slid open, she turned around. "Please try and get some rest, Jenkins. Understand that no one here wants to hurt you, we're only taking precautionary measures, nothing more. We can't afford to have more people exposed to the terrazine like you had been."

Without another word she turned around and left, leaving the dazed and confused marine alone in his own thoughts.

* * *

**Mira's Mansion, Dead Man's Rock**

"If there's one thing you do have, it's in the form of your persistence and persuasiveness," Matt grumbled, as he stepped out of the System Runner aerospace craft with Mira. "Even now I still don't get how the hell you managed to persuade me to leave the Hyperion and ride with you to this location just outside of Paradise."

"You're my husband, Matthew," the pink haired mercenary leader said. "You really think just because we were out of contact for a while that I wouldn't know you at all?"

"Well at least you got the drinks right," the captain said grudgingly. "You certainly did your homework on that part with regards to the minibar you got in there."

"Please, Matthew. Don't take everything so seriously. You're acting like this entire trip to Dead Man's Rock is purely business."

"Isn't it?" Matt folded his arms. "We had to divert away from our original path from Paradise after your men detected Dominion troops questioning the local population about your location. That means they're not too far away, and could be closing in on you as we speak."

Mira pointed upwards, gesturing to the other ships flying over them. "With your reinforcements, I'm certain we'll be able to beat off the Dominion without a problem."

Matt shook his head. "And where are the rest of your mercenary troops? You told me you hid a major chunk of them right here, I don't see any around."

"They are, just not above ground," the female mercenary leader answered, before tugging at Matt's arm. "Now come on, I want to show you around this place."

Horner rubbed his chin as he gazed at the mansion before him. "When I first saw it from above, I thought I was hallucinating," he said. "I thought the whole of Dead Man's Rock is nothing but a dumping ground for derelict ships and other vehicles. It certainly was confirmed the last time I was here at Deadman's Port. But this mansion? It almost makes me think I'm on a completely new planet all of a sudden."

"It wasn't easy in the restoration of this place," Mira admitted, as the two of them began walking up the front steps.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember what I told you about the Zerg attack on Dead Man's Rock a year ago?" Off Matt's nod, Mira continued, "This mansion belonged to Ethan Stewart, and the Zerg had abducted with him. The mansion itself didn't suffer too much damage, which you can call that a miracle given what happens to a planet when the Zerg land on it. Still, given the slender resources Dead Man's Rock had, rebuilding it was no easy task."

She opened the door and Matt's eyes widened at the sight. The mansion truly was a palace. Instead of the rusted wooden planks infested with termites and covered with several inches of dust, he was seeing dark olive colored marble flooring. Every inch of it was shiny, not a single trace of dust anywhere. They were so shiny that they caught the reflected light from the chandeliers that hung from the ceiling.

As they walked further down the entry hall, Matt could see the expensive porcelain ceramic wares displayed throughout the hall. The walls themselves were elegant in gleaming reddish wood, and there were dozens of trophy heads of various wildlife animals hanging from them. The captain quickly recognized the tusked head of an Ursadon, the feline face of a Bengalaas, and the pterosaur like head of a Kakaru.

"These are considered the prizes of game hunters," Mira explained, as she gestured to another section of the wall. "You can see some of them are also collectors of sorts."

"I'll be damned," Matt mused, as his eyes locked on a display of scorpion like creatures known as the Scantids. There were hundreds of them, each of a different variety, all pinned to the wall.

He quickly snapped back into business mode. "Still, regardless of how elegant this place is, I don't get why you brought me here. This isn't any fortified military position or anything like that. To me, this looks more like the boudoir of a royal princess than of a military commander. And since there's virtually no other place on this whole planet like it, aren't you standing yourself out?"

"Matt, you've come a long way," his wife said softly. "You can deny it all you want, but the reality of the matter is your brain is near a pile of mush by now. I may not know exactly _what_ you and the Raiders have been doing after your victory on Char, but something tells me you didn't just sit back and take a breather."

Horner was about to respond when Mira continued, "You may not show it on the outside, but I can tell your mind is near spent right now. What you need is a full day's worth of rest, if not more. You try commanding the troops in your state, you'll burn yourself out in the blink of an eye. If that happens, our hopes to defeat the Dominion here will fall apart. My troops may not be the kinds to take orders from you, and you know as well as I do that there's no way the Raiders are going to take orders from me."

"Aren't you forgetting the fact that Jim had done his share of the command as well?" Matt asked.

"Had I not seen the Queen of Blades when you arrived I might have agreed," Mira stated. "I'm sure Raynor was more preoccupied over the safety of his girlfriend instead, given the fact everyone probably wanted her head on a platter."

Matt sighed. Despite her ruthlessness as a mercenary, Mira still proved to be relatively intelligent. Indeed, even now, Jim continued to worry about Kerrigan's safety. It wasn't that he felt she couldn't handle herself, it was more because he remained concerned how others would react to seeing her. This wasn't unjustified either, as the Raiders and Warfield's troops still remain uncomfortable about her, so obviously if Mira's mercenaries find out that she was the Queen of Blades, it's highly unlikely they'd be able to control their rage against her.

Given that, the captain had to admit that Jim had spent a tremendous amount of energy trying to keep her safe, which certainly distracted him from commanding the Raiders as Matt hoped he would.

Accepting defeat, he lowered his head a little. "All right, Mira. You win this round. I'll admit I could use a period of rest and relaxation right about now."

His wife nodded, smiling a little at the sight, before tugging gently on Matt's arm. "Come on, this way."

The two of them walked on until they reached a tall curving staircase, where they ascended the stairs and reached a set of mammoth doors, also comprised of the shiny reddish wood.

Mira pulled a skeleton key out of her pocket. "Make yourself at home, Matthew," she said, unlocking the door.

Matt whistled as he gazed at the room before him. It had been a long time since he had seen a sight like this. The Hyperion had been Mengsk's flagship during the days of the Sons of Korhal. However when Raynor formed the Raiders and made off with it, they had done some modifications to the living quarters. Instead of the luxurious apartment like state that most BattleCruisers tended to have for their captains, both Raynor and his rooms on the Hyperion only had a bed, a sofa, and a few other pieces of furniture.

The room before him, on the other hand, had to be at least 10 times the size of his quarters. Mira moved toward a large window and pulled back the black heavy curtains. Sunlight streamed in, and Matt had to shut his eyes for a moment at the sheer brightness. When he opened them again, he saw that the sunlight had revealed a lavished bedroom with a canopied king sized bed and absolutely beautiful furnishings. Even from the doorway, the fresh scent of the overstuffed pillows invaded his nostrils, as did the creamy bed sheets.

The room itself was painted a bright emerald color, and its shine was carried through the bedposts to a nightstand at the foot of the bed. The nightstand itself carried a large ceramic bowl filled with apples, grapes, oranges, and pears. Located next to the bedroom was a sitting room with a sofa and a cozy burning fireplace.

"I wasn't exactly too sure if you had developed tastes for new alcohol and what not," Mira stated, pointing to a sideboard. "So I decided to gather all different types of beer and liquor to play it safe."

"What's with the humidor?" Matt asked, looking at the cigarette container next to the bed.

"Well, even now I'm still not sure just how heavy a smoker you are," his wife said. "But I do know you would enjoy one to relieve some stress."

Mira then pointed to the other side of the sitting room. "If you can't stand the stench of the rest of Dead Man's Rock, don't worry. Millions of people here would tell you the same thing. The bathing area is just beyond there. And don't worry, the water pumped through these pipes are genuine, not just recycled sewage water you saw in the towns and villages. Faucets are gold-plated and made of high quality metals and the tile walls are ceramic, not just the rubbish iron and wooden crap that last barely a week elsewhere on the planet."

"I have to hand it to you," Matt said, shaking his head. "If this is your way of living like royalty, you've certainly convinced me."

"We can discuss more of this after you're fully rested, Matthew," Mira said calmly, gesturing to the bathroom. "Please, put your thoughts away long enough for a hot shower and a long sleep, you need it."

The captain sighed, but gave her a curt nod, and without another word Mira turned around and walked out of the room, leaving Matt alone to ponder his situation.

* * *

**Underground Mercenary Hangar, Dead Man's Rock**

"All right Raiders," one of Mira's mercenaries announced, as they stood in front of a huge metallic door. "Behind this door is clear proof that the mansion built above you was not just for the hell of it. Beyond here used to be a cave complex system, but the crime lord Ethan Stewart had modified it, changing it to suit military purposes. A huge section of our forces are stationed here, well underground and out of detection range of scanners. This was where Mira Han had sent us to when reports had confirmed that Dominion ships were in orbit around Dead Man's Rock."

The Raiders looked at one another and frowned. "And how exactly are we supposed to get in there?" one of the marines asked, folding his arms. "That door has 3 layers of safeguards to make sure no intruders enter: genetic material, voice recognition, and retinal scanning."

"Mira had factored all that in already," came the reply. "For the time being, all 3 safeguards have been temporarily disabled, so that you will be able to get inside and cooperate with our forces. They have already been notified that there are former Dominion troops alongside the Raiders, so there won't be any surprises there."

Without another word the mercenary soldier turned around and entered a few codes into the keypad next to the door, and a message appeared on the screen above the keypad: **Code accepted. Access to hanger granted.**

The massive door swung inward, and Lieutenant Franklin's eyes widened as he stared into the cave. It certainly matched the description Mira Han had said during their trip to the mansion. There were large pieces of equipment sitting around, and swarms of mercenary soldiers moving about moving box after box of cargo onto vehicles. There were constant patrols of foot soldiers and Goliath walkers marching around the complex.

At the far end, the cave opened up to the sky for easier ship take offs and landings. Armed gun turrets with mercenaries in them were present, with spotlights constantly sweeping over the entire area. In the middle of the cavern, there was a metallic control center, also with mercenary technicians moving about and doing their duties.

Franklin whistled. "For a planet that's supposed to be nothing more than a toxic dumping ground, this is one impressive military complex."

"I'll take that as a compliment," one of the mercenaries said. "Nevertheless, we only have a very small portion modern ground and air vehicles. The vast majority of what we've got is outdated and disorganized."

"He's right," Kerrigan said, walking up from behind Franklin. "Take a closer look at the vehicles."

The lieutenant squinted carefully, and sure enough, he could see that despite having Orlan's forces at her disposal, Mira's mercenary force was still largely comprised of military equipment from years ago, if not decades.

Nearby, he could see Mining Scout trucks parked, while others were slowly moving about and transporting troops around the hanger. Similarly, Ore Loaders meant for mineral mining were also used as transports. While occasionally the Dominion uses the Ore Loaders as well, the ones here had no armor plating, and therefore would be very vulnerable to small arms fire.

Next to them were Sloth bulldozers, designed for earth moving. During the Guild Wars the Kel-Morians removed the dozer blades and replaced them with cannons, and this seemed to be exactly the case with Mira Han's forces. Clearly there was a need to improvise.

Combat cars from the Guild Wars used by the Confederacy were also present, though the ones here were in an even worse shape, having no armor plating whatsoever and offering no protection to anyone riding in it. The Saber military vehicles, also used during the Guild Wars, were in a similar condition, but at least the gauss cannon on its top was still functional, which ensured it a measure of offensive ability.

All of these vehicles were inferior to the Dominion Armored Personnel Carriers and Stinger jeeps, and Sarah knew that against such modern weaponry, it would take overwhelming numbers to compensate for their quality weaknesses.

The aerospace vehicles were in a similar manner. Instead of the Hercules Dropships that they had at their disposal, Mira's forces were limited to the Giant-class cargo ships from almost 15 years ago. While they were capable of carrying more material compared to the Hercules ships, they were also much slower and had no armor, thus depending on escorting fighters for protection.

Nearby were engineers doing maintenance on Freight Ships. While more modern and still used by the Dominion, the ones the red haired ghost could see were in an appalling state, just barely holding itself together without even being airborne. The Heavy Transports further down the hanger were more promising, but Sarah quickly saw that their armor plates were cracked and rusted and thus would not offer optimum protection to anyone aboard.

The only decent quality transport ship that the mercenaries seemed to have were the Planet Hoppers and Heavy Landers, still used by the Dominion military for troop transport. But as always, Kerrigan saw those were relatively few in number, and neither could carry many troops within.

Franklin had told her about the Dominion use of Assault Dropships in addition to the Medivac ones, the former having its medical support replaced with twin rotary cannons. He had also told her of the use of Grizzly fighter-bombers, which also had the role of troop transport. Given the poor state of the mercenary ones, Kerrigan could see right away that the Raiders' Wraiths and other ships would be hard pressed to protect them.

This was not surprising given the state of the mercenary fighter aircraft. For starters, Mira's forces had no access to BattleCruisers at all, though there was limited access to the smaller Scoutships usually attached to them. They were inferior to Wraiths, but Franklin had suggested that they could be used to counter the Dominion Grizzlies as they were ineffective against aerial opponents.

Beyond that, most of the mercenary air fighter power was limited to Avengers and Hellhounds, used by the Confederacy and the Kel-Morian Combine during the Guild Wars. While the Avenger had rocket pods similar to that of the Banshee, their targeting systems were primitive in comparison. Similarly, the Hellhounds had better accuracy with their laser weapons, but they were not as powerful as the burst lasers fired by Wraiths.

Looking around, Sarah saw that this was going to require a lot of cooperation between the Raiders and the mercenaries if they were to have any chance of driving the Dominion forces off Dead Man's Rock without a bloodbath.

"Now," the leading mercenary announced, as a group of mercenaries stepped forward. "I believe it is time both of our sides get better acquainted with one another."

"And they're agreeing to this?" Franklin asked, folding his arms.

"It's not really a matter of that, soldier. No matter how you carve it, we have to work together here to deal with the Dominion forces. If we fail, it'll be a catastrophe. Dead Man's Rock could permanently lose its independence and become under Dominion law, and that is something we'll never accept."

"We'll have to hope Matt and Mira can patch things up in their relationship," Sarah told Franklin gently. "Otherwise, well I don't think I need to tell you just how much friction there's going to be among all of us."

"You think it'll work?" he asked.

Kerrigan rolled her eyes. "You honestly think their relationship is weird?"

"Well obviously," Franklin retorted. "Horner doesn't seem to understand a damn thing about desperate times call for desperate measures. I admit I'm not comfortable with working with mercenaries myself, but that guy doesn't even want to think about it. Having a wanted mercenary leader for a wife is something he just can't accept. Talk about a weird couple."

Sarah shook her head. "Look who you're talking to. Only a matter of weeks ago I was the most hunted person in the galaxy for spreading chaos and destruction across worlds throughout the Koprulu Sector. Compared to them, the relationship I have with Jim is far weirder."

Even Franklin had nothing to say about Kerrigan's statement there.

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

There were advantages to operating alone. You didn't need to worry about anyone but yourself, and there was no one to slow you down and become a liability problem. Such were the natural characteristics of ghost operatives, and most were content with just that.

For Nova however, now was certainly not one of those times. This wasn't one of those assassination, infiltration, or any of the other missions she had been assigned to when she was still Agent X41822N of the Terran Dominion. She was a ruthless killing machine back then, and she was good at it. Never once did she fail in a mission assigned to her, and her unparalleled ability had struck fear into the Dominion's enemies.

This time, however, was completely different.

For starters, she was not the hunter, but rather the hunted. And unlike terran adversaries, the Zerg did not fear her the slightest bit. No matter how many of them she put a bullet through their heads with her C-20 Canister Rifle, all it succeeded in doing was make them more angry. The Spider Mines she set from the Vulture did no better. Although they had done their job and blown Zerglings to pieces, more of them simply took their place.

It hadn't been long before the Zerg had quickly wised up. To the blond ghost's surprise, they had actually predicted her driving patterns and had moved a Nydus Worm directly in front of her path, where Banelings poured out of their mouths. She had jumped off at the last moment to avoid being engulfed in the explosion, but the Vulture was lost.

Now, she was running from one dilapidated building to another, hiding from the Zerg. There was no way to reestablish radio contact with Jim as the radio had been in the Vulture when the Banelings blew it up. This meant that she would have to reach him on foot, and there was no telling exactly where he was now. Tarsonis City was huge, its population in the tens of millions before the Zerg invasion. Trying to locate Jim and the others could take who knows how long.

Still, she knew even if she couldn't reach him, he would certainly come to look for her. Even before the Char invasion, despite seeing Jim completely worn out and shattered by what happened to Kerrigan, Nova could see that he was the type of commander who would leave no one behind, especially not to the Zerg. If she couldn't locate him, she could always hold out in one spot and wait for relief.

Of course, this was much easier said than done. After all the Zerg she had killed, all the rounds in her C-20 Canister Rifle had been expended. She was down to only her Flak Pistol, and although it fired explosive rounds, they were usually ineffective against targets except at very close range. Given how quickly Zerglings, Roaches, and Hydralisks could tear a person apart with their scythes and claws, few ever had the nerve to even try.

To make matters even worse, the last glimpse she had of her pursuers were in the form of Ultralisks. Clearly the Zerg had had enough, and brought out the big guns. Against them, her Flak Pistol was completely useless. Sure as a sharpshooter, she could shoot their eyes blind, but given the incredible healing rate that all Zerg creatures have, the Ultralisks would regain their sight in less than a minute.

At that moment, the wall behind her suddenly crumbled. Nova whirled around to see the sight of an Ultralisk trying to smash through the wall with its Kaiser Blades. Wasting no time, she sprinted towards one of the windows and jumped out onto the street, only to be greeted by the sight of even more Ultralisks. They roared in anger, and charged towards her.

Channeling her psionic powers, Nova unleashed a psionic blast at the closest Zerg beast. It was only enough to make the Ultralisk stumble backwards for a moment, but that was enough. She took off running, as the next ruined building was less than 500 feet away. Given their massive size, the Ultralisks would have difficulty navigating through the rubble, but she would be able to do so with ease.

However as she neared the building, a Glaive Wurm parasite projectile suddenly exploded right in front of her. Nova looked up to see Mutalisks closing in on her position. She made another attempt to reach the building, but more Glaive Wurm explosions forced her back.

Clenching her teeth in frustration, Nova sprinted in the only direction left available to her. Slightly away from the building was a narrow alleyway. Surprisingly enough, the Mutalisks made no attempt to interfere as she ran there.

But when she made it into the alleyway, Nova's eyes widened in shock. The alley extended less than 20 feet forward, then it was a dead end. The Mutalisks had tricked her. They forced her to run in this direction so that they would finally be able to trap her where they wanted her.

As Nova turned around to run back out, it was already too late. An Ultralisk had already reached the entrance to the corridor, but was unable to get any closer because the alley was too narrow and the Zerg beast itself was too massive. Roaring in frustration, the Ultralisk began to tear at the walls with its Kaiser Blades, and Nova could see in the distance that more Ultralisks were gathered behind it.

Now she understood what Kerrigan had felt when she had been abandoned by Mengsk at New Gettysburg. A year ago, when she was on the planet Altara and encountered the Zerg, she swore she would never share Kerrigan's fate. Now it appeared she had no choice in the matter.

There was no escape for her. Even if she emptied all of her rounds into the Ultralisks, it would only have minor effect. And no matter how much skill she possessed, there was no way she could fight off a pack of Ultralisks with just a pistol and her psionic powers.

Nevertheless, she would go down fighting. Nova took aim at the Ultralisk tearing at the alley walls and fired. As predicted, the explosive round had virtually no effect, but that didn't stop her from emptying more rounds into the beast.

As she backed up into the dead end, Nova mentally reminded herself to save the last round. If she couldn't get out of this alive, she would at least ensure she didn't become infested. After seeing what the infestation had done to Sarah, Nova doubted that she would be strong enough to maintain her sanity as Kerrigan had.

But then, to her surprise, the wall behind her suddenly moved and gave way like a door, and she stumbled backwards before slipping and falling down a flight of stairs. As she pulled herself up, she saw a hooded figure standing over her.

The figure kneeled down slightly and pulled off the hood. "Nova? Is that really you?"

The blond ghost's eyes widened at the familiarity of the voice, as well as the face of the man that she was looking at.

"Mal? Mal Kelerchian?"


	63. Chapter 63

**Author's Note: As today marks two years since when Wings of Liberty was released, I thought it'd be a good idea to update the fic with the next chapter.**

**This, however, will have to be the final update to the fic for a while due to my computer problems. Long story short, I've been trying to save up money for a computer upgrade, but my computer died on me two weeks ago and I'm still quite a while away from being able to scrape up enough.  
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**Therefore, please don't PM me and ask when I will have all this fixed and be ready to update the fic again, that's impossible to predict. The only other computer in my house was bought back in 2003 and has been on life support for the last two and a half years and is incapable of doing almost anything.  
**

**I now have no choice but to suspend writing activity and put the fic on hold until these problems are fixed, which definitely won't be happening anytime soon. To all my fic readers, I sincerely hope you'll be able to understand this.  
**

**While I don't know how long it will take to fix my computer and all that, I'm positive that this means there is now no way I can get this fic finished before Heart of the Swarm comes out (unless Blizzard delays it to like November 2013 or something like that).  
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**Therefore, to my reviewers, I ask one thing from you in your review: by the time Heart of the Swarm is released, will you continue to read and review this fic? If yes, it'll of course give me further inspiration to continue writing it once I get the computer problems out of the way.  
**

* * *

Chapter 63

**Khor-shakal, Aiur**

Nahaan looked down at the fortress ruins from his Scout superiority fighter. Once, this place represented the ultimate symbol of power for his Ara Tribe. Now it was nothing but rubble, and Artanis had reminded him that this was a reminder of how much the Protoss had changed ever since the Zerg invasion of Aiur.

Yet for the Ara leader, the reminder remained bitter to him. Not only was the fortress completely destroyed, but it had not even been done by the Zerg. Rather, it had been done by the Khalai Protoss that had chosen to side with Tassadar in bringing Zeratul and his Dark Templar to Aiur.

This was the Khor-shakal, the Heart of the Conclave. For millennia, this was where the very core of power had originated, where the Judicator Caste had ruled over the Protoss population on Aiur. His Ara Tribe had enjoyed great power from this fortress, where all of the other Protoss tribes came to respect it. The ruins before him had been caused during the Zerg invasion of Aiur, where Tassadar had ordered an attack on the Conclave for clinging to their traditions and blind to the threat that the Zerg posed.

The loss of this great fortress had deeply affected Nahaan. Upon arriving at Shakuras for the first time and meeting with the Dark Templar Matriarch Raszagal, he knew that there was little chance that the Conclave could ever return. Nevertheless, as the years wore on and the friction between the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss continued, it had brought him hope. Artanis still believed that Protoss civil war could be avoided, but Nahaan knew the Hierarch's efforts were just delaying the inevitable. The risk of tribalism grew on a daily basis, though their united goals in the reclamation of Aiur had quelled that for the time being.

Still, Nahaan knew this wouldn't last forever, and in any case the Hierarchy was setting itself up for destruction. By permitting the Queen of Blades to live due to the lack of details regarding the ancient Xel'Naga prophecy, Artanis had provoked extreme resentment from the Daelaam Protoss. Although many had accepted the fact that no actions against the vile creature should be taken until a clearer picture of the prophecy is known, there were just as many who were beginning to feel their patience tested at how much more time is necessary in order to circumvent the prophecy.

The Ara leader had exploited this impatience. He had sent out word to the other Protoss tribes that due to Zerg blood still present in Kerrigan, the possibility that she would again become the vile creature that had once terrorized them could not be factored out. For most, this took little effort to convince, and Nahaan knew that no Protoss alive would want to see the Queen of Blades regain control of the Zerg swarm. It is possible that currently, she was not strong enough to do such a thing, but that did not mean it would remain that way indefinitely.

For this reason, Nahaan knew he was gaining the support more and more Protoss with each passing day. News had spread to the Hierarchy that the Xel'Naga prophecy must be determined as quickly as possible so that the Firstborns could better prepare. To the Ara leader, this was not exactly the form of support he had wanted, but it was nevertheless a step in the right direction. For if the prophecy could not be fully determined within a set amount of time, there was the danger that Kerrigan would use this time to regain her power, and no one would allow such a thing to happen.

Under such a situation, it was Nahaan's hope that enough Protoss would rally to his belief that it was worth taking a chance with the prophecy. If so, then he would have delivered the justice that the Protoss had sought for so long. He would be revered as a hero to his people for saving them from the wretched Queen of Blades when all others had failed. And he would be praised even more so than James Raynor in his actions, as he would have _permanently _neutralized the Zerg threat to the Protoss.

Nahaan's eyes then turned back to the fortress rubble that once was the Heart of the Conclave. Should such an event occur, he would at least be able to restore the Ara Tribe to its former glory. The Hierarchy would be restructured, where the Ara Tribe would once again dominate it just as it had in the Judicator Assembly. Artanis hadn't been wrong that the Conclave influence still lingered about his tribe, as far too many of them were unwilling to let go of the power they once held. If his plan worked, then the Ara Tribe would be grateful towards him for restoring their seats of power within the Protoss ruling body.

With regards to the Xel'Naga prophecy itself, the Ara leader saw little need in understanding its full meaning. Zekrath and the rest of his Shelak Tribe may have continued to show interest in the Xel'Naga texts, but the Conclave had only allowed this for the purpose so that if the mysteries of the Xel'Naga became clear, they might be able to expand their knowledge through the Khala. The way Nahaan saw it, the prophecy showed very little insight on that, and any mention of the Zerg in the Xel'Naga texts should be discarded.

The Protoss had no need for the Xel'Naga. This was something that even the Dark Templar tribes understood to an extent, although they continued worship them, a complete contrast in comparison to the Khalai Protoss. After Khas had united them under the Khala and reorganized the Protoss society into Judicator, Templar, and Khalai castes, most of the Protoss on Aiur had seen little need to reconnect with the Xel'Naga any longer. Of course Xel'Naga artifacts were still considered sacred to all of the Protoss tribes, but the idea of fully immersing themselves with their creators had been abandoned.

As for the Khor-shakal fortress ruins, Nahaan was confident that its restoration was only a matter of time. Artanis had already consented to consider his recommendation to have it rebuilt once the remaining Zerg creatures were cleared from Aiur. If restored, the Hierarch had agreed that it would serve as one of the governing locations for the Protoss once again, though not to the extent that the Conclave had used it for. According to him, as far as the majority of the Khalai Protoss see it, these ruins only serve as a reminder to them of how the Conclave had nearly led the entire Protoss population on Aiur to extinction.

That was irrelevant now. Nahaan had every intention of restoring the Khor-shakal to its former glory, and his plans were already in motion to bring him ever closer to doing just that.

* * *

**Dead Man's Rock**

"Well it's good to see not _every_ piece of Han's aerospace vehicles is utter crap," Franklin grumbled, as he looked out the window of the Dropship he and his squad were flying in.

"This isn't one of the Dominion Core Worlds," Kerrigan reminded him. "Dead Man's Rock had never had a reputation higher than a toxic waste disposal planet. Therefore, there's virtually nothing modern here, all you'd see are ghettos, if even that."

"This is why it'll make it easy for the Dominion base established here to stand out," the lieutenant said. "Whoever is in charge of the Dominion strike force here has to be smart enough to know that. Furthermore, regardless of how modern or primitive the technology, rumors tend to spread pretty quickly. There's no way the Dominion troops could stay here very long and not have the towns be alerted to their presence."

"Once we find the base, I'll go in for the infiltration," the red haired ghost operative assured. "Whatever their military strength is, I'll get all the intel on that."

"Can't you go in and just kill a bunch of officers and screw up all their plans or something? Even before what happened to you on Tarsonis, you had the reputation of being the fiercest ghost alive."

"This has to look like a combined victory for the Raiders and Mira's mercenaries," she told him. "The Dominion has to get the impression that the alliance between the two factions is still in effect. In addition, they have to be convinced that Mira's forces are not the weaklings they think they are, and this is why a combined assault on the base is necessary once we locate it."

"Speaking of the Raiders, I'm surprised you chose to select me and my squad to go with you on this reconnaissance mission. We may no longer serve the Dominion, but the fact remains that we once did, and the Raiders resent us for it. I would've expected you to have chosen one of Raynor's squads for this."

Sarah pointed to her head. "I'm a telepath, Franklin. Even now, when I picked up on the Raiders' thoughts, for the most part what I see is just frustration, anger and hatred. Just about all of them are still displeased about being denied their justice simply because their commander couldn't get over his love-struck problems. Half of them want to tell Jim that his feelings for me had rendered him completely blind to everything else."

"And you think that makes my boys a better choice?" Franklin retorted. "Given the sheer savagery of the Zerg, the Dominion didn't exactly need propaganda to convince its people about them. Most of General Warfield's troops still don't see you as anything other than the Queen of Blades, and after Char we're all of a sudden fighting alongside you. It's just a complete rejection of everything we had believed in." Seeing the reaction on Kerrigan's face, his expression softened. "I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but I can only speak for myself in believing you're not like that Zerg monster anymore."

"It's all right," Sarah said quietly. "It's all I _have_ been for the last four and a half years. Who knows how long before I can convince people otherwise, assuming that's even possible anymore."

"Well, given everything we've learned, they have to start sooner or later. I'm not saying I believe in this alien prophecy myself or anything like that, but Warfield was right when he told us that we're not the experts on this subject. Furthermore, from what I've been told, this is about the lives of every man, woman, and child in the Koprulu Sector. You can't just gamble that many lives like this, the stakes and risks are just too high."

"It's one of the things that sets you apart from so many of the regular army troops I've encountered," Kerrigan commented.

"What are you talking about?"

"After our raid on New Folsom, you seemed a lot more sympathetic with me than the others."

"Hey, if it weren't for you I'd be nothing but rotten burning flesh back there," Franklin defended.

"It's more than just that," Sarah said. "I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there was more to you than what meets the eye. Eventually, curiosity prevailed. I asked Jim to pull up your military file and everything."

"And?"

"You may have been among the tens of thousands of people taken from the prisons and sent into the Dominion Marine Corps, but you're not like most of the other criminals the Dominion pull out of the penal systems. Those guys are mostly serial killers and psychopaths, where the slightest spark would ignite the powder keg. The records for you on the other hand only seem to indicate armed robbery and property damage. As such, it looks like the Dominion authorities felt you were safe enough, so you weren't subjected to the neural resocialization process like almost all of the others were. This meant that you had retained a lot of your free will and had the choice to think for yourself, instead of just obeying from above like some obedient puppy."

She clenched her teeth in frustration as she continued, "It's barely any different than what the Confederacy did to me, enslaving me with their psionic dampeners so that I wouldn't turn against them."

"I'm sorry," Franklin said quietly. "I didn't know the process was that excruciating."

"Few people do," Sarah replied. "But back to my original point, the fact here is that because you didn't undergo the neural resocialization process, it meant that you were not just some obedient drone to the Dominion. You would have been one of the more intellectual people in the Dominion army, one who had a conscience, instead of just blindly following the orders from above without even thinking about it. In comparison, for most of the other Dominion marines, all they seem understand is point a gun and shoot the target, nothing more."

"Raynor said similarly to us when we landed on Char," Franklin stated. "Though after we all left the planet, he promised that he would do everything in his power to change all that. He said Mengsk had treated us as little more than cannon fodder, that even the high ranking Dominion officers were treated in the same way, all in the name of feeding his power cravings."

"Jim's right on that part. Think about it: suppose you had beaten back the Zerg legions in the invasion. You honestly think Mengsk would really care how many of you had perished? Of course not. He would have simply manipulated the media so that they would say it was thanks to his genius that the invasion was stopped, and not acknowledge the Dominion soldiers at all."

At this point, a voice called out from the cockpit. "People, you may want to get up here. I think I may be on to something."

"You located the Dominion base?" Franklin asked, coming into the cockpit with Kerrigan.

"It's possible," the mercenary pilot answered. "The long range scanners just picked up increased movement in a remote location on the planet."

"Where is it?"

"Some place we call the Toxic Slums. The terrain is considered a wasteland even by Dead Man's Rock's standards, and the stench there is overpowering. Don't bother considering being able to breathe fresh air. The place is a dumping ground for toxic and radioactive waste. Over the years, hundreds of millions of tons of it have accumulated there, so you'll be breathing nothing but their contaminants. Near the dumping site is a junkyard for the rusted hulks of abandoned ships and vehicles."

"I thought you used these hulks to build the towns here," Sarah mused.

"We do, but no matter how crappy a state the towns may be, we still have standards for our buildings," came the response. "The ships and vehicles in the junkyard I'm talking about are of inferior quality, their plating too brittle and fragile for building anything."

"So how does this lead to you suspecting the Dominion base might be there?" Franklin asked.

The pilot shrugged. "I can't say for certain, but the movement activity has been for prolonged periods. Normally, people just come here every now and then, dump off the wastes or scrap metal, and quickly leave. The mercenaries on Dead Man's Rock don't have the decent quality CMC armor like the Dominion does, so the longer we stay at the Toxic Slums, the greater the chances we could get exposed to the radioactive and toxic waste, which would be hazardous to our health."

"And the movement you're seeing is considered too long for mere dumping activity," Kerrigan finished. "It makes sense for the Dominion to put their base there. If the place is as toxic as you say it is, then no one on Dead Man's Rock would ever stay there for longer than a few minutes. That isn't enough time to launch a full scale assault, especially against an enemy with the most modern weaponry. In addition, you just said it yourself that people only go there occasionally, so there'd be little risk of the base even being detected."

"Then that's where we're going," Franklin said. "Take us to the coordinates where this Toxic Slums is located. If the Dominion base is there, the others must be notified immediately."

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Jim sighed in relief as the remaining Zerg creatures in the latest attack wave retreated away. That last attack had taken a serious toll on his men on the ground and in the air. Although casualties were minimal, most of the marines, Marauders, Reapers, and Firebats were in a state of collapse. Vast quantities of ammunition had also been expended to hold on to their defensive positions. By now, most of the marines' C-14 Rifles were completely out of bullets, the Firebats and Hellions had no more flame fuel for their flamethrowers, and the Siege Tanks were running dangerously low on artillery shells. Orders were issued accordingly to the BattleCruisers to send down more Hercules Cargo Ships loaded with all the ammo they could carry, but Raynor knew that his troops needed a rest from the constant fighting.

Ravens had deployed their auto turrets to keep watch for any unsuspecting Zerg waiting to get the drop on them, and the Diamondback hover tanks were standing by in the event of another Nydus Worm attack in the form of Ultralisks. Goliath and Viking pilots kept their eyes in the air should the Zerg launch another attack with Brood Lords, while Vulture hover bikes laid the Spider Mines around their position to deal with mass Zergling hordes.

Fortunately, he was relieved to hear that scans from the Ravens and Banshees had indicated that with the sun slowly setting, it would appear the Zerg have stopped their attacks. Vast numbers of them are still gathering in the hive cluster, but they don't appear to be attacking.

Of course, with so much experience under his belt in fighting Zerg, Jim had no intentions of taking any chances. Zerg attacks were relatively common at night, though in this case it might be different. In all his years of dealing with the Zerg, they had all been on worlds where they were either actively infesting it, or vigorously defending it. The ones here on Tarsonis, however, for the most part have wandered around like discarded tools for the last four years, and there was the possibility that there would be no night attacks. It would certainly be welcoming news to the men under his command, who desperately needed the rest after all the fighting.

But even if this was the case, it did not lift Jim's own anxiety about Nova. The rebel commander had no doubt about the blond ghost's abilities, but even she had limits. If the Zerg attacks continued, sooner or later they would wear her down, and she would become vulnerable.

Wraith and Banshee flybys had confirmed that the Vulture she was driving to escape the Zerg had been destroyed, along with Nova's radio equipment. This only worried Jim more, as now there was no longer the prospect of even contacting her.

"Don't worry, sir," came the reply from one of the Banshee pilots. "She's the Dominion's best ghost, a survivor against almost every odd she's ever been in."

"Yeah well until she joined up with the Raiders, I seriously doubt she's had much experience in dealing with mass hordes of Zerg, especially in the case like with what happened on Char," Jim grumbled.

"Perhaps, but she's a fast learner. Graduated from the Ghost Program in only two and a half years, faster than any other known ghost. I'm sure she'll be able to adjust to the situation."

"I hope you're right," Raynor said. "I have no intention of leaving her behind, and the last thing I want is to see an infested Nova."

"We will continue our flybys all night if we must, commander. There's no sign of a body yet, so it's safe to say that she's alive."

"Even so, we don't know anything more than that," Jim countered. "Make every attempt to scout over the Zerg hive cluster as well. If there's any sign of infestation activity, I want to know about it. It was bad enough to see what the Zerg did to Kerrigan, I will not allow the same thing to happen to Nova."

"Understood, sir." The channel then closed, and Jim sighed. Leaving Nova to find another way to reach him was turning out to be a total catastrophe. With thousands of Zerg moving into the ruins of the city, hiding from them was going to be extremely difficult. Tarsonis City itself may be huge, but that could only protect someone for so long.

Even if he ordered his Vikings, Wraiths, and Banshees to exterminate all the Zerg in the city from the air, it'd make no difference. There were tens of thousands more in the hive cluster, and Jim knew he simply didn't have to forces available to deal with them all, even if the Zerg made no attempt to replenish their numbers, which he knew they obviously would.

He turned to one of the officers. "You think anyone here would have the strength to go on a night patrol?"

"Not likely, commander. Now that it seems apparent that the Zerg may not attack us at night, most of the boys have dropped their level of alert. More than half of them have dropped to the ground and are already asleep. As for the rest, well most of them are so exhausted that they can barely even remain standing. I know you're worried about Nova's safety, but with this many Zerg still in the city, what you're proposing will require hundreds of men. That way, in case you run across Zerg, you'll have a chance to escape and everything. Right now, it'll be pretty lucky if we can even pick out a dozen of them still in any condition for the patrol."

Raynor clenched his teeth in frustration. It wasn't what he wanted to hear, but he knew it was the truth. All of his troops had reached their endurance limits, and they needed a night of peace and quiet to regain their strength. They needed his leadership to make it through the night in the event the Zerg attack them again, which meant he had to remain here. Nothing could be done until at least morning, which meant all he could do right now was hope that Nova could find a way to avoid the Zerg for the time being.

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

"You can relax, Ms. Lockwell," Lieutenant Corbin assured the UNN reporter and her news crew. "The Zerg attack waves have been beaten off. The marines at the frontlines have confirmed that the remaining Zerg are retreating."

"That's what you've been saying for the last 7 hours," one of the journalists pointed out. "And only a few minutes after you said that, the alarm went off again, signaling another Zerg attack wave. What makes you so confident that this time is any different?"

"Nothing is ever certain, I'll give you that," Corbin admitted. "But the boys have been on the line with the scouting Wraiths. They have visual confirmation that there does not appear to be any more Zerg heading our way."

"Well I'm glad for that then. These Zerg attacks are even more fierce than I had imagined," Kate commented.

"I hate to break it to you, but by Dominion standards, such attacks are considered light. I'm betting the Zerg are still just probing us, still trying to determine a weakness in our defenses and all that."

"But you also said the last few waves have been heavier."

Corbin nodded. "Exactly, and this could mean that the Zerg have gotten what they wanted, and are beginning to launch major attacks to try and wipe us out."

Kate shifted uneasily in her seat. The dilapidated hotel that her UNN news crew and the Dominion forces were holed up in was an ugly place, but according to Colonel Kim, it suited its purpose. The Reapers had detonated demolition charges on the structural support beams on nearby smaller buildings, causing them to collapse. The rubble had then been loaded onto Ore Loader trucks and driven to the most critical street intersections and dumped there, creating artificial barriers that the Zerg would be forced to navigate through. Although the individual Zerg creatures could traverse terrain better than Dominion marines could, everyone knew that there were limits to what even they could do.

Thus the hope had been that this would channel the Zerg ground creatures into killing zones, and the strategy had worked. The artificial rubble heaps meant that the Zerg were unable to use their Ultralisks as they were simply too big to navigate through the rubble successfully. Zerglings and Hydralisks were quickly mowed down by Goliaths, their autocannons blazing. The Lurkers fared no better, as they had to burrow in order to attack, which left them vulnerable on the surface, and most were quickly shredded by Dominion marines.

The Infestors and Roaches proved to be a bigger problem, however, due to their ability to move while burrowed. To counter the threat, a thick carpet of Spider Mines had been laid behind rubble heaps in the event they decided to pop out of the ground from there. This too had been a success, as the battlefield showed the limbs of dead Zerg everywhere, their bodies blown apart by the mines. There were even the rotting hulks of Nydus Worms, which the Zerg had used in the hopes to get around the rubble.

The public relations officer noticed Kate's unease and softened his tone. "You have nothing to worry about. The Dominion has the best troops in the galaxy. It'll take more than a few attack waves from the Zerg to knock us out."

The female reporter kept silent and nodded, though internally she was not amused by this show of grandiosity. Almost all of the Dominion Fringe Worlds were still bitter at the Dominion military for their inability to protect them from the Zerg, and the Dominion Core Worlds showed a similar attitude. Most of the people were angry at the fact that the Dominion Armada did nothing to take the fight to the Zerg. There were a select few who felt they had somewhat redeemed themselves with regards to the Dominion forces that participated in the Char invasion, but everyone else saw that victory belonged to James Raynor, given Prince Valerian's testimony.

Speaking of Raynor, Kate realized that her gamble had paid off, at least to a degree. Dominion troops had confirmed that the body of the marine they had killed belonged to General Warfield, who's forces had joined with the Raiders in the aftermath of the Char invasion. This meant that it was likely Raynor himself was present on Tarsonis, perhaps right here in Tarsonis City.

"What do you think the situation is with Raynor's force?" she asked Corbin. "We all know it was him who attacked us as we were entering the city."

"It was also thanks to him that we now have entire Zerg hordes coming in to try and turn us into chew toys," the Dominion officer said bitterly. "Still, the Zerg attacks aren't _entirely_ bad. It's not like they can distinguish which terran faction is which, so they would be attacking Raynor's boys as well as our own. Given the fact that we had only be subjected to Zerg probing attacks, it's possible they're doing the same to him. But who knows? Maybe we'll get lucky. Maybe the Zerg had chosen to concentrate on him while only launching minor attacks against us. If that's the case, all the better on our situation. We could then proceed forward with the digging and excavation with only minimal Zerg interference."

"I doubt the public would see it the same way," Kate said.

"I don't care just _what_ the public sees him as. His goal is to spread chaos throughout entire Koprulu Sector. Even before the Zerg invasion, his Raiders had caused rebellion across several worlds already. Regardless of just what his intentions were, the fact remained that what he had done on Korhal caused total chaos within the Dominion. It had taken a lot of energy out of the Dominion military to put down those riots, and even now there's still plenty of tension that remain. No one here is just going to stand by at let him wreak even more havoc on the Dominion."

Kate could see the anger on the man's face, and decided not to push it any further. Still, this only proved that most of the Dominion armed forces did not even bother look at the picture regarding Raynor very carefully, they simply swallowed everything the emperor had said about the rebel leader without a second thought. While the public was now very uneasy about believe everything the Dominion says, this marked the best opportunity to hear the story from the other side.

And with James Raynor on Tarsonis, it just might be possible to conduct an interview with the man after all.


	64. Chapter 64

**Author's Note: 11 weeks have passed since I last updated this fic, I thought it's now time to let my readers know that I'm still around, and have not abandoned the project.**

**Please do not ask on my computer situation though, I am still well away from even scraping up the money the buy the necessary components, and so that problem is still a long way from being fixed.  
**

**That being said though, since the delay was not due to writer's block, I recommend that you re-read the previous 5 to 10 chapters of my fic, because this chapter will take place right where the previous ones left off.  
**

**In this chapter though, I had wanted to explore Matt and Mira's relationship a little bit. And I'm making Mira a _lot_ more intellectual that most people would believe. This will become useful in the later parts of the story.  
**

**I would also like people to take a look at the final Wings of Liberty cinematic, as I have tried to analyze it and put a different perspective on things that some people may not have thought of. Therefore, once you reach the last section of this chapter, please take a look at that cinematic and see if you concur with my assessment or not.  
**

**Now, let us continue with the story...  
**

* * *

Chapter 64

**Tal'darim Base, Char**

"Mighty Xava'tor," one of the High Templars greeted, as Ulrezaj entered the Nexus chambers. "We are relieved to see that you are unharmed despite the constant battles against the Zerg creatures."

"I am a formidable warrior, noble templar," the Dark Archon replied. "I cannot be slain in battle so easily. Now then, what is the status of the Khaydarin Crystal shards that you have all been working on?"

"The assembly process is nearing completion," another High Templar answered. "Some of the shards appeared to have been drained of their energy, and thus they were of no further use to us. They could no longer play their role in the reforging of the Khaydarin Crystals."

"Regrettable, but it was inevitable," Ulrezaj admitted. "The Queen of Blades had made much efforts in order to harness the sacred artifacts of the Xel'Naga. It is obvious that she had intended to use them in a similar way that we do."

"What do you mean?"

"Long before the Protoss had even known of the Zerg, we had all been fully aware of the vast numbers of Khaydarin Crystals that the Xel'Naga had left on Aiur. We had also known that the Xel'Naga had used them for experiments, though the exact details of the experimentation remain unclear to us even to this very day. Nevertheless, we had been able to use the Khaydarin Crystals ourselves and harness their energy in order to build our Aiur civilization. They had proven themselves in powering our temples, citadels, fortresses, ziggurats, altars, and every other conceivable building that we were able to construct. They were invaluable to all of the High Templars, who forged amulets from the crystals themselves."

The Dark Archon pointed to one of the High Templars' amulet before continuing, "Because the Zerg had also been created by the Xel'Naga, it means that they too have an understanding of the Khaydarin Crystals. Although Kerrigan herself had been human before becoming the Queen of Blades, the Zerg would have granted her at least a rudimentary knowledge of it, where she would have continued to learn by herself as time passed. Long before the Zerg invasion of Aiur, the Protoss there had continued to make great efforts to further comprehend the energies within the Khaydarin Crystals in order to further improve our society, as well as our warriors."

"And the Queen of Blades was doing similarly with the Zerg swarm," one of the Zealots finished.

"Correct, young templar. This is something that is similar to my great plan here as well."

The individual Tal'darim warriors looked confused. "This does not appear logical, Xava'tor. The Zerg are already extremely powerful, why do you wish to enhance them further?"

"No one doubts their power, but that is not the relevant point," Ulrezaj pointed out. "It is how that power is used that makes the difference. The Queen of Blades may have had a hand in the evolution of the Zerg, but the fact remains that the vast majority of them are not sentient creatures. Thus with the power of the Khaydarin Crystals, it may be possible to bring them under our control, where we could use them for our own purposes."

"How is that even possible?" Another Zealot asked.

Ulrezaj pointed to himself, thankful that his master's illusionary spell prevented the Tal'darim from knowing that he was a Dark Archon. "As you are all aware, the merging of High Templars in order to create an Archon may result in great power, but it is generally not done among Khalai Protoss because the merging also results in the loss of self and the physical form. In addition, despite the immense energy Archons radiate, they simply burn out once the energy is depleted. Were none of you even curious as to how I was able to avoid this fate?"

"You are our Xava'tor," a High Templar said. "You have knowledge that the Tal'darim does not possess. It is entirely possible that such knowledge is currently beyond our comprehension."

"Well spoken, noble warrior. You are correct, as only a select few are aware that there is a way to stabilize the energies that reside within an Archon. I am among them, and that is why I have yet to burn out as others had in the past. Such knowledge is extremely difficult to practice."

"We understand, but please explain how this links to your plan to control the Zerg into doing our bidding."

"Of course. The Dark Templar have a similar technique, where two Dark Templar warriors are able to merge together in order to form what is known as a Dark Archon. Similar to the Archons that Khalai Protoss possess, the Dark Archons also burn out and dissipate because the chaotic energies they wield are simply too unstable to be properly controlled. However until that happens, the Dark Archons are beings of immense energy, far more powerful than Khalai Archons. So great and dangerous was their power that until the Dark Templar had learned of the Zerg, their creation had been outlawed due to the fear that they could not be controlled."

"They must have a power that could allow them to control the Zerg creatures individually," one of the High Templars realized.

"This is correct," Ulrezaj answered. "However the Dark Archons are created from the merging of Dark Templar warriors, and thus such a power originates from Dark Templar energy. While the Khalai Protoss wield a different form of energy due to the embrace of the Khala, the fact remains that both sects of Protoss had been created by the Xel'Naga. To that end, despite your loathing of the Dark Templar, the fact remains the Tal'darim shares similarities of energy wielded by them, however minute that may be."

The Dark Archon then gestured to the chamber door, where he had been informed the Khaydarin Crystals resided behind. "If that is true, then it would be possible for the energies of the Tal'darim, once combined together with the crystals, to take control of individual Zerg creatures.. The greater the amount of Tal'darim energy, the greater amount of Zerg we may be able to bend to our influence."

"How would this enhance the Zerg then?"

"This is the reason why I had requested the Tal'darim to capture live Zerg specimens," Ulrezaj replied. "By adding Zerg energies into the Khaydarin Crystals, once combined with those of the Tal'darim, would enhance the Zerg beyond any efforts that the Queen of Blades had done during her years in residing over the swarm. They would become more powerful, yet would remain under our control, where we would then be able to use them to eliminate our enemies."

The individual Tal'darim warriors looked around themselves. "We would be honored to give our life energies for your goals, Xava'tor," one of the Zealots said courageously.

"Be aware, young templar," Ulrezaj warned. "Such a process could more than likely be fatal to you, and this would be true for any Tal'darim who chooses to volunteer."

"We understand the risks and dangers to this," another High Templar spoke up. "However battles are not won without sacrifice, and here is no exception to this. If we must give our lives in order to achieve the greater good for the Tal'darim, then so be it."

"Very well then," the Dark Archon said. "Once the assembly process is complete, we shall begin the experimentation for the enhanced Khaydarin Crystals. They shall be far more powerful than those you had encountered in the past, and they shall be used to crush our enemies."

* * *

**Toxic Slums, Dead Man's Rock**

"It looks like your suspicion was right," Franklin said over the radio, as the Dropship begin to lift itself back up into the air. "Those Dominion troops must have been thinking the same thing."

"It's nothing too complicated," Kerrigan replied, on the ground and waving the ship away. "This place may not exactly be an ideal choice for prolonged operations, but at least the chances of being discovered are low."

"You sure you want to do this by yourself? You'll be alone with no backup or anything."

"Ghosts are trained to infiltrate," Sarah explained, cocking her C-20 Canister Rifle. "They're trained to avoid detection against the best the enemy has to offer. You said it yourself that Nova had undergone numerous missions of infiltration and got out without a scratch."

"Yeah but the truth was that when she was a ghost operative in the early days, no one really cared if she succeeded or not," the lieutenant grumbled. "Before she earned her reputation as the Dominion's deadliest operative, she was just an expendable pawn. If she couldn't succeed, they would just send another ghost to finish the job."

"It's no different than how the Confederate Ghost Program operated," the redhead said in anger. "We were all just weapons to them. It wasn't until I was with the Sons of Korhal and meeting Jim for the first time that things began to change."

"People, we can dwell on the past all day, or we can let her proceed with the mission," the pilot said.

"The Dominion base is within visual range," Sarah said, looking into the distance. "I'll find a way in, get whatever intel I can get my hands on and get out of there. You boys just make sure to be here when I arrive."

"Of course," the pilot replied, as the Dropship began to steer itself away. "This junkyard will be the exfiltration point, we'll be back here in 4 hours."

Without another word the Dropship turned about and flew away, leaving Kerrigan alone on the ground. The former Confederate ghost gripped her rifle tightly. It had been a while since she had gone into infiltration missions, but that didn't mean she had lost her touch.

The mercenaries were right about one thing though: the stench of this place was overpowering. It only took a brief whiff for Sarah to see why this place was so hazardous. While the radiation levels were not as bad as she thought, the toxicity levels certainly were. If it weren't for the silver ghost mask that she currently had pulled down, this time covering her entire face instead of just the upper half, she knew that she would be on the verge of choking on the fumes by the time she reached the Dominion base's outer perimeter.

As Sarah moved forward across the junkyard, she could see the visibility slowly deteriorate. This of course was understandable, given that she was moving closer to the dumping grounds. Fortunately, thanks to her ghost mask, she was able to see the vision of heat and psionic signatures.

When she reached the outer perimeter, she could see that the Dominion troops had indeed acted in arrogance as she had suspected. Having believed that there was very little risk of attack or even detection from mercenaries, the base entrance was not very heavily guarded. Bunkers had been constructed at the most critical routes leading into the base, and most of them had auto turrets built alongside them. As the latter was capable of firing at aerial targets as well, it must have given the troops there that this was all that they would need in terms of an early warning system in the event of an attack. Every now and then a marine patrol would stop by the bunkers and ask the occupants of any strange activity, but each time the answer was no.

Sarah watched from a distance, waiting for the current marine patrol to move away. Clearly the bunker occupants were getting bored of their sentry duty as nothing had happened for so long. She could hear some of them complaining of having nothing to shoot at, and demanding that the next marine patrol come back with a few kegs of beer. It was obvious that after so long, all of the bunker occupants wanted some R and R. This was an advantage she would exploit.

Channeling her psionic powers, Kerrigan cloaked and advanced forward. Unlike Missile Turrets, the auto turrets were not detectors and therefore could not sense her as long as her cloak was active. Like Nova, she too could remain cloaked for far longer periods of time than the average ghost, and this made it all the more easier for her to simply move past the bunkers and turrets without anyone noticing her presence. She could have permanently fried their brains with ease with a simple psychic attack, but Sarah knew better. With a squad of marines patrolling these entrances every 15 minutes, the discovery of their corpses would immediately raise an alert throughout the base, which was something she needed to avoid. Her goal was strictly gathering information. The assault on the Dominion base would come later.

As she moved deeper into the Dominion installation, the patrols around her began to increase. Instead of just a single squad of marines, they were now in the forms of Goliath walkers, Siege Tanks, Hellions, and Stinger jeeps. The last one was something Nova had informed her about, a vehicle in service before the formation of the Dominion but were not well known to military applications until after the Brood War. They were eventually meant to complete replace the Hellion and the Vulture in the Dominion arsenal, but the transitional period for this remained slow.

All around her, Ore Loader trucks drove past. Some of them carried Dominion troops as their cargo, others carried weapons and ammunition. The latter ones mostly headed for the Planet Hopper and Heavy Lander Dropships, where container after container of cargo were being unloaded by SCVs and moved onto the air transport ships.

It was certainly what she had been expecting, and this was going to very careful cooperation from the Raiders and the mercenaries once the assault on the base began. Nevertheless, Sarah knew she needed more intel, and there was only one other place to look.

Still cloaked, she began moving towards the Command Center building located in the core of the base. Whoever was in charge of this Dominion operation would be in there, and she needed to know what his intentions were.

Jim told her that in the aftermath of the Brood War, the Command Centers had undergone modifications, making them more suited for a military role instead of just the minimal defenses years before. Nevertheless, the basic structure of the installation remained relatively the same, and Sarah knew she had to reach the top, where the operations room was located. Whatever the Dominion planned to do here on Dead Man's Rock, the exact details would be located there.

Even as she moved right up to the installation, Kerrigan could see no signs of detectors anywhere. Clearly the Dominion did not believe the mercenaries of Dead Man's Rock understood anything about infiltration, and thus made no preparations for it. All the better for her to go in and scout.

She waited patiently until a group of Dominion officers walked up to the entrance doorway. Punching in a few codes, the door slid open and the officers entered, completely oblivious to the fact that the red haired ghost had slipped into the installation as well.

* * *

**Dominion Command Center, Toxic Slums, Dead Man's Rock**

"Real impressive method of persuasion, Captain," Ridgeway said sarcastically to Captain Bock, as he and his officers gathered in the operations room of the Dominion Command Center, with Mengsk on the communicator console and listening in. "Terrorizing the women and children within the city of Paradise, along with savage beatings and even killing some of the inhabitants."

"Sir, may I remind you that these are not the regular civilians we're dealing with," the captain explained to him. "Dead Man's Rock is a lawless world, full of mercenaries, crime lords, pirates, scoundrels, and murderers. There's not a single decent person on this world, and very few of them could ever be of any use to the Dominion no matter how much time passes."

"He's right, general," one of the staff officers said. "Just about every town we come across on this planet had been littered with the abandoned and rusting husks of ships and vehicles. Brothels, bars, taverns, gambling halls, drug dens, and pawn shops then spring up among them, so it's not like the citizens here are anything more than prostitutes and drug dealers or anything like that."

"That doesn't make them all useless to us," Ridgeway said, disgusted at Bock's methods. "You and your troops killed so many it was as if you were just slaughtering mindless animals. In case you forgot, these are still people we're dealing with here, and they could have given us valuable information."

"Or they could have just stalled even longer to try our patience," Bock pointed out. "When you're dealing with people in situations like this, using the method of terror is the best way to go."

The general snorted. "And that worked out _real _well. Your actions for the past hours did nothing but leave over 50 people killed or tortured to death and more than 300 of them injured, half of them in critical condition. Not to mention the fact that now you've gotten the whole city population pissed off at us."

"It's not like they can do anything about that," Bock defended. "All the mercenaries on this planet are only looking out for themselves. They wouldn't even think of stepping in unless something happened that directly affected their situation, and affects them right away. Those guys are running their own illegal businesses on Dead Man' Rock. Unlike us, the mercenaries aren't sworn to protect the people here."

"Bock isn't wrong there, Ridgeway," Mengsk said, speaking up for the first time since the meeting began. All eyes in the room turned to him. "The people of Paradise are weaklings, their will can be easily broken."

"Well they haven't so far," the general grumbled. "I read through all the interrogation reports, and all of them have been either they don't know where Mira Han and her forces are, or they have no clue what we're talking about."

Mengsk shrugged. "Well, that's only because your forces have mostly used the method of holding them at gunpoint and demanding answers. All you have to do is step up the brutality."

"That would just anger them further," one of the Dominion officers pointed out.

"You can argue that," the emperor replied. "But anger isn't going to solve anything. Sooner or later the people down there would have no choice but to acknowledge reality."

"Which is?"

"That we can hurt them and they can't do a damn thing back. It won't take too long before they come to their senses and realize that. Once that happens, they'll have no choice but to cooperate with us and cough up the information about Han's whereabouts."

"Wouldn't that just unite the people in the city though?" another officer asked.

The emperor rolled his eyes. "It wouldn't make a difference. They have virtually no weapons to deal with us anyway. And it's not like they can just contact the local mercenary forces to come to their aid. Most of the merc forces here are conducting operations that conflict with other merc forces, which means most of the time the mercenaries would be fighting amongst themselves. They're not going to care about the people's suffering here in Paradise."

"But you just said it yourself that they may step in if something happened that affected their situation," Ridgeway said.

Mengsk sighed. "All right, general, I'll humor you a bit more. If by some miracle someone in Paradise is actually able to contact the mercenaries and by an even bigger miracle the mercenary force actually comes along, it'd mean nothing. Remember what I told you before you landed on the planet: deep down all the mercenaries are cowards, they don't have the nerve to challenge the Dominion."

"And if by some miracle they do?"

"That seems utterly impossible to me," the emperor replied. "But let's just pretend that actually happened. The result would be a total bloodbath on their end. As I stated before, virtually none of the mercenaries have modern military equipment. Therefore, they know they'd have to assemble a massive force to even have the slightest chance of taking on your forces here. Given so much disunity amongst the mercenary forces on this world, this would be a completely impossible task as it would take too long for all the mercs to put aside their differences, assuming that's even possible to achieve in the first place. Even if the unthinkable occurred and they _do_ manage to achieve the impossible, all the mercs would know that fighting the Dominion wouldn't be worth it. The losses you take here would be minimal, and could be made good in less than a week. On the other hand, all their forces would end up being decimated, and the slender resources on Dead Man's Rock means it'll take years, maybe even decades, before they could make good the losses they've sustained. They'd be smart enough to realize that, and that's exactly the reason why they wouldn't have the nerve to attack your base."

"It just seems such a waste of time to me," the general said, finally relenting. "Stepping up the brutality might provide us the information we need, but there's no telling just how long that may take."

"Then use the special cargo I gave you. It'll be an imminent threat to everyone on Dead Man's Rock, not just the ordinary townspeople. There would be no place to hide, no place to run."

Ridgeway thought about this for a moment. "You believe it'll produce the immediate result we want?"

"Of course," Mengsk answered. "Once you scare the people enough, you can get them to do just about anything, including telling you anything and everything you want to know. Even the mercenary forces would have no defense against something like this. Even if the ordinary citizens don't know where Han is, other mercenaries certainly would, and they would reveal her location right away. Once you get that, it's a simple matter of going there and killing her. I leave this choice to you, Ridgeway."

The general exhaled, as the communications screen blacked out, before turning to his officers. "What do you all think?"

"The emperor's proposal does seem sound, sir," one of the officers said. "I for one believe we should implement this."

"It does seem like a quick solution, I'll give you that," the general agreed, before gesturing to the door. "Everyone, please step outside for a moment. I need to think this over before I consider if and how this course of action would work."

* * *

**Mira's Mansion, Dead Man's Rock**

Matt Horner walked down the spiral staircase and followed the butlers of the mansion as they led him to the designated location. Apparently Mira had wanted to him to join her at the dinner table. Night had fallen, and so far there have been no reports of any hostile interactions between the his wife's mercenaries and the Raiders.

It was good news to the young captain, but he was concerned how long this was going to last. Sooner or later they would have to work together to go up against the Dominion forces, and there was no telling what could happen in the heat of battle.

However, that was something Mira had wanted him to set aside for the time being. She wanted to give him at least a few more hours of rest and relaxation to clear his wearied head. That was something he couldn't argue with, as the constant battles against the Zerg had taken a toll on him.

Mira also wanted to do some catching up with him, since there had been no contact from him ever since they got married and no direct contact the last time the Raiders were here. This was something Matt was very hesitant about, as he was still not ready to accept her as an ally. The last time he was here, Jim's words did nothing to encourage that either, as he was convinced that Mira would help whoever paid her the most.

Nevertheless, during the hours of sleep he had gotten, he was able to look at the bigger picture. He still didn't trust Kerrigan, and neither did most of troops here on Dead Man's Rock. However, so far they were able to work along with her, and that at least shows for something. Admittedly, he was forced to concede that Raynor's relationship with her was a far stranger one compared to his relationship with Mira.

Yet Jim still chose to trust Kerrigan and shared everything the Raiders had done during the four years after the Brood War. For Matt, it just seemed wrong to put the trust in so soon. His commander had reminded him that due to the prophecy and what it may end up holding, the Raiders were going to need all the help they could get. If that meant for Matt to work together with Mira, then so be it.

It was not a welcoming prospect for Matt, as right now he was stuck with almost everyone he didn't prefer to work with, yet he had no choice in the matter. For the time being, he pushed those thoughts aside, as one of the butlers opened a set of doors, where Mira was waiting at the exceptionally large dinner table for him with the mansion servants.

"I'm glad you could join me," Mira said, taking Matt by the hand. The young captain nodded without a word, as one of the servants pulled out the chair. As he sat down, another servant folded a napkin onto his lap.

"Since you had left so abruptly after we got married, we never really got a chance for our wedding dinner or anything like that," the mercenary leader said. "I thought now would be a great time to do so, as well as spend time doing catching up for both you and me."

"I suppose trust building requires its cooperative moments," Horner said, as Mira poured him an elongated glass of red wine and handed it to him. It had a taste of licorice to it, and he liked it. Apparently Mira did have some good tastes in her after all.

"I must admit getting news on the Raiders proved extremely difficult after the so-called Brood War," his wife explained. "With the exception of a few major skirmishes, the Zerg had gone silent for four years, and the Dominion news mostly reported on the rebuilding of Mengsk's empire. As the emperor had used the media to portray the Raiders as terrorists who wanted nothing more than to spread havoc throughout the sector, it wasn't easy to find anyone who had a different saying about it, especially not with virtually all the media branches under the Dominion's belt. Each time you caused rebellion on any world, Mengsk would simply tell the public this is just a further sign that he was right about Raynor and the Raiders."

"There really wasn't much we could do," Matt agreed. "The media is a vital source of information to the common people, so whoever controlled it is usually the person listened to. Until what happened on Tarsonis, we had no incriminating evidence against Mengsk. Many of the Raiders' morale had deteriorated, and some began to feel that their actions were for a lost cause. Thus by the time of the Zerg invasion, the Raiders had been reduced to only just the Hyperion and a handful of volunteers."

"I understand," his wife said, as one of the servants set a plate of fish and lettuce in front of Matt. "You were frustrated because four years had passed and virtually no success had been made."

Matt nodded quietly, as he picked up his fork and gave the dish a shot. It was surprisingly good, and it gave him a chance to adjust his thoughts as he continued to drink his wine.

"So, what happened after you left Dead Man's Rock?" Mira asked. "After the news of the Korhal broadcasts, reports regarding the Raiders became scarce, and it wasn't until Valerian Mengsk made a public announcement about the Char invasion that the Raiders were mentioned again."

The captain thought about it for a moment, before relenting. "As you know, a revolution isn't exactly cheap. It was among the other major reasons why the Raiders had been greatly reduced in numbers during the four years of relative peace. Right before the Zerg invasion began, Jim decided to kick off the revolution against Mengsk again. Initially, it was not met with much enthusiasm. The Raiders' funds and credit levels were so low that it wasn't possible to sustain the revolution for more than a month or two. It was at that point that Tychus Findlay contacted us, saying the Dominion were digging up alien artifacts, but there was another group that wanted them: the Möebius Foundation. Tychus said that they would pay him a ton of credits if he could get the artifacts, but since he was only one man, he decided to turn to Jim for assistance."

"And that was what kept the Raiders going throughout the invasion, wasn't it?"

Matt nodded. "After the Korhal broadcasts, we had to temporarily put the revolution on hold. With Mengsk weakened, we had to turn our attention to the Zerg threat instead. Apparently they wanted the artifacts too, and we were in a race with them for it."

As he continued to explain to Mira about what happened, the next course came, a rich seafood bisque. This continued to surprise Matt, as he never really believed Mira would have any personality other than her mercenary one.

"I had seen the news," the female mercenary said, raising a spoonful of the creamy soup. "They had confirmed that the Zerg invasion was not planetary conquest, though I don't quite understand why they'd be so interested in these artifacts."

"Neither did the Raiders," Matt replied. "We didn't understand just what the artifacts were supposed to do by that point, but we were all determined that the Queen of Blades must not obtain them. Eventually, pay day arrived, and we reached the rendezvous point where we were supposed to meet up with the Möebius people. Instead, we were greeting by Dominion ships, including the Bucephalus, Mengsk's flagship. Valerian revealed himself to us and offered a proposal. He told us that from what his researchers and scientists were able to discover about the artifacts, they were capable of absorbing Zerg energy. Therefore, it was possible to put the artifact pieces together and construct a device that would reverse the infestation process and return Kerrigan into a human being again."

"So _that's_ why there was an alliance between you and the Dominion," Mira mused. "I bet a lot of Raiders were pretty angry at this."

"There was plenty of that," the captain admitted. "Raynor initially felt what Valerian told us was relatively pointless, because the Queen of Blades was on Char, her fortress protected by billions of Zerg, and he was skeptical that there was even a way to get the artifact close to her. Valerian said that Jim was the only person who had ever been close to Kerrigan and survived to tell the experience. He could use the Dominion fleet to provide the Raiders with the forces necessary for the Char invasion, but Jim was the only one who was familiar with Kerrigan's strategies and tactics. Therefore, only with his help could the invasion be a success."

He paused to finish his creamy soup before continuing, "For the majority of the Raiders, they saw that Jim simply abandoned the revolution. However, the commander explained that if the Zerg end up killing everyone, the victory over Mengsk would mean nothing. If a temporary halt to the revolution was needed to stop the Zerg, then so be it. Thus the invasion of Char proceeded. Although both the Raiders and the Dominion forces took appalling casualties, we were eventually able to activate the artifact, and Kerrigan was deinfested."

Mira sensed a tone of bitterness in his voice. "Did something go wrong afterwards?"

"According to Jim, Tychus showed his true colors as his boys went into the hive ruins to retrieve Kerrigan," the captain answered. "Apparently he had made a deal with Mengsk even before the Zerg invasion began, where he had to kill her to gain his freedom. Jim killed him to save Kerrigan, and he's still suffering from the grief of doing so."

"You don't seem too disappointed to hear of his death," Mira pointed out.

"I'm not. The guy was a prison convict. During one of our artifact missions he hacked into the Hyperion database to look up information on Kerrigan. I warned Jim numerous times that Tychus couldn't be trusted, but he would have none of it."

His wife shook her head. "You really hated the guy, didn't you?"

"Tychus had a criminal record so long that it would've taken days just to list them all. Jim said that the two of them had been together for years and gotten into more than enough trouble with the law. When the authorities finally caught up, both of them were in the same situation. The difference was that Jim got a second chance, whereas Tychus got the wrong end of the stick."

Matt continued to point out the frustrations he had with the convict as the entrée arrived for them. Not used luxuries with the Raiders, he had to admit that the exquisite roasted bird that Mira's servants had served them continued to reinforce his wife's better tastes. He was seeing Mira in a new view, though the hesitations in him remained.

"Naturally my suspicions for Tychus escalated even before he directed us for the second artifact," he said. "Shortly after Jim asked me on the situation for the Zerg invasion, both he and I were confused why Tychus wouldn't step out of the CMC Armor he was wearing. At that point, we still believed he was working for the Möebius Foundation, and Tychus explained that until he pays off he debts to them, he has to stay locked up in that armor."

"And I take it Raynor still told you to brush it off?"

Matt nodded. "It was only shortly after we acquired the Odin walker that he felt something was seriously wrong. That was when we discovered that the armor Tychus was in contained a transponder, which would shut down all his vital organs if the right code was entered. This meant that the guy had a gun to his head, though at that point we still didn't know Mengsk was the one who had his finger on the trigger. It's for that reason that I'm glad the guy's gone now. All that time he had been one of Mengsk's spies and Jim didn't even know it."

"I think you may be oversimplifying Tychus, Matthew," Mira replied.

Horner snorted. "How so? He didn't care about fighting the Zerg, he didn't care about saving lives. All he wanted to do was have a drink in the cantina and spend any money he earns. Aside from Jim, the only reason why I even put up with him was because those artifacts were supposed to fund our revolution against the Dominion. I'd say I got him all figured out, so what makes you think any differently?"

The female mercenary leader thought about this for a moment, as she was forking the roasted bird meat into her mouth. "I guess this will have to be based on the actions of what he had done on Char. Well, that and assuming Kerrigan and the Queen of Blades are actually two different individuals."

The captain was confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Tychus could have put a bullet in Kerrigan's head right then and there. He didn't have to tell Raynor about the deal he made with Mengsk, that could have waited until _after_ he fired the round. You ever consider why he didn't do that?"

Matt paused. He never considered that detail that Mira was talking about there. "I don't understand where you're taking this."

"Well, if we operate under the assumption that the Queen of Blades and Kerrigan are not one and the same, then you have to look at Tychus's original goal. When he first encountered the Queen of Blades, all he saw was a murdering psychopath, without the slightest bit of humanity in her. Thus regardless of Raynor told him about her, Tychus could have easily argued that just from appearance alone, it proved otherwise. Now, on the other hand, by the time his chance came on Char, where he and Raynor found Kerrigan deinfested, it would have changed his views. He couldn't kill the Queen of Blades anymore because the artifact had already done the job for him. Because of that, he would perceive that Kerrigan is no longer a threat. However, he was still in the deathtrap suit of his, where Mengsk was telling him to either kill Kerrigan right away or the suit would kill him, it really removes his options on just what to do."

"You think he let Raynor pull the trigger on him at that moment?" Matt asked.

His wife shrugged. "Way I see it, Tychus must have been pushed into the corner at that moment. If he pulled the trigger, Raynor would have killed him for killing his girlfriend. But if he didn't, Mengsk would have pressed the magic button and he'd die anyway. Essentially the only _real_ way out for him at that point was if he killed Raynor too, assuming Mengsk was even going to keep his word and let Tychus go free. I'm sure Raynor would have told Tychus about how close he and Kerrigan were before her infestation, so obviously he would have known that Jim would have his hesitation. But you said it yourself that Jim always did what was best for everyone. If that's true, Tychus wouldn't have been convinced that Raynor would actually spare the Queen of Blades unless he believed she no longer existed."

"That's one of the things I'm still greatly concerned about," the captain said. "After leaving Char, we went to Haven, where Kerrigan was brought to Dr. Hanson, one of the people the Raiders rescued from the planet Agria during the Zerg invasion. There was hope that the remaining Zerg blood could be removed from Kerrigan, but Dr. Hanson wasn't able to do so."

"So you're saying she could still be the Queen of Blades." It was a statement, not a question.

"There's just no way to prove if she still is or not," Matt sighed in frustration. "At least, not with the technology at our disposal. Jim may have been happy he got his girlfriend back, but the rest of us are not comfortable with all this. You certainly weren't when we touched down on Dead Man's Rock."

"No, but I also said it's not like I was going to have a choice in the matter. At this point it looks like everything I just have to work with people who may not be operating in my best interests and hope the result isn't going to end in a catastrophe."

Feeling mostly full and still weary to argue, Matt simply nodded to her. One of the servants then approached the table, setting down a large tray with two dishes of purple ice cream. As the captain took a bite, he suddenly frowned. The flavor wasn't something he was used to tasting, but there was something familiar about the scent.

"Are you all right, Matthew?" Mira asked.

"There's something familiar about this flavor, though I can't quite seem to put my hands on it," Matt said softly.

"It's something called sammuro fruit," his wife explained. "From what I was able to discover from Ethan Stewart's computer data, this stuff comes from Aiur, which makes it near impossible to find."

Matt shifted slightly in his seat. "That was the other major event that the Raiders had undergone in the aftermath of Char," he said. "As you know, we're on friendly terms with the Protoss." As Mira nodded and asked him to go on, he continued, "After what had happened on Char, the Protoss had learned of our victory. They decided this was the time to clear Aiur of the Zerg, and Jim agreed to assist them in that endeavor. That had been the last thing the Raiders had done before coming here to Dead Man's Rock."

"I see," Mira said calmly. She still felt there were parts of the story her husband was not telling her, but decided not to press any further.

"Overall, although much of the Hyperion crew still aren't comfortable with Kerrigan, a lot of them are also not too pleased with me."

Mira looked confused. "What for?"

"They say I'm too distrustful, unwilling to risk anything," Horner said. "Many of them were on my side when Valerian offered us an alliance to invade Char to defeat the Queen of Blades, saying that Jim had gone completely insane for accepting this deal. Personally, I had expected Valerian to betray us during the invasion, and I certainly did after Kerrigan had been deinfested and there was no longer a need for such an alliance."

"But that didn't happen, did it?"

Matt shook his head. "Valerian even handed us the artifact without any strings attached, even though we know far less about it compared to what his Möebius Foundation probably knows. After that, quite a few crewmembers were displeased with me in believing the Dominion was comprised completely of manipulators and backstabbers."

He cleared his throat before continuing, "It was as if they had completely forgotten who Valerian really was. He's a Mengsk, and after everything Arcturus had put us through, it just seemed unthinkable to me to encounter a Mengsk who wouldn't be every bit like that."

"Given that you were meeting him for the first time, I can see why you'd say that," Mira said. "Still, didn't it occur to you that it's wrong to blame the son for the sins of the father?"

Her husband looked confused. Clearly Mira was hinting at something he didn't know. Maybe he didn't want to, but curiosity eventually won out. "Are you saying you know Valerian better than the Raiders do? If so, it'd be good if you share this information with us."

"Of course," Mira replied, as servants arrived to pick up the empty ice cream dishes, replacing them with a wide assortment of cheeses. As she saw Matt's nose tingle a little from the scent, she smiled. "As you know, Dead Man's Rock is a lawless world, very far away from Dominion space and their controlled planets. This planet is considered to be popular for people who want to come here to escape Dominion authority."

"I don't blame them. This place seems almost impossible to police."

"That's the belief, but it's only part of the picture," Mira told him. "The Dominion don't make attempts to bring the world under their control, they do it in a slightly more indirect way. They have aware of the crime lords on this planet for years. Some of them are paid by the Dominion as agents to do the dirty work for them. Ethan Stewart was one such case, and any useful information he carried was passed onto Valerian."

Matt frowned. "This only seems to imply he's just like Arcturus."

"Not exactly," Mira assured. "With the two of them, their relationship has a great deal of friction in between."

The captain snorted. "That seems to be an understatement. I've never heard of anyone who has gotten a stable relationship with Mengsk before."

"The point here is that at the end of the so-called Brood War, the Dominion military had been decimated, and people were living in fear on the Dominion Core Worlds due to the threat of the Zerg. Despite Dominion attempts to keep things secret, news eventually leaks out. In the case of the prince, Valerian had intended to rebuild the Dominion to make it glorious once again."

"He told us something similar when Jim asked him about what he was supposed to get out of the Char invasion," Matt admitted. "Valerian told us that he wanted to become a better emperor and a better man than his father."

"Valerian had a very different view of the Dominion and where to lead it," Mira explained to him, forking a piece of cheese into her mouth. "Mengsk is a brutal dictator who craves nothing but power. Valerian, on the other hand, had a passion for archeology and works of the past. He had a constant interest with regards to evidence left behind of civilizations that had been forgotten due to the passage of time, and for ancient structures and knowledge that had been buried away."

"That would explain why he was the head of the Möebius Foundation with their scientific research on the artifact," Matt mused.

"Mengsk's vision of the Dominion was only to restore it to a rule of might, but Valerian wanted it to be one of arts and sciences as well. It was why he was so interested in discovering artifacts, regardless of what alien race they belonged to."

"Well, for once his discovery just might have paid off for us."

"True, but by now, you know that not all alien artifacts are inert, where you can just put it on display for it to look shiny and pretty for the audience," Mira said. "Some of them are still active—"

"And others are not really artifacts at all, they're weapons of some sort," Matt finished.

"Valerian had a passion for that as well, and this was exactly the reason why Mengsk had supported him in using Dominion resources to uncover those artifacts," his wife said. "However, from the outset there was a problem to this."

"If the artifacts were weapons, then Mengsk would have wanted a way to control them, and use it for himself," Matt realized.

"Exactly. Mengsk felt Valerian was unfit for the throne because he believed in compassion, instead of ruling through fear, which would make him too weak to be a successful emperor," Mira explained. "Furthermore, Valerian had an understanding when it's simply too much. In other words, he knows when he uncovered anything that might be too powerful to use. Mengsk knew that about his son, and this was the reason why he had placed spies into Valerian's research, science, and archeological network. That way, if Valerian did uncover something and refused to share the knowledge with him, Mengsk would know of it anyway."

Matt rubbed his chin. The spies would explain how Tychus had known of the Möebius Foundation, even though he had been released by Mengsk.

He sighed in disgust. "The emperor doesn't even trust his own son."

"It would explain why Valerian handed you that artifact after the Char invasion," Mira reasoned. "Of course he would have wanted it for himself to study, but given what you had told me, it would seem that the artifact is something of immense power, and he had no intention of letting his father have it."

"Well with the spies it just reinforces what I tried to tell Jim from the very beginning, which was never to trust Tychus."

"You hadn't known him very long, Matthew," Mira pointed out. "Raynor had known the guy for years, compared to weeks for yourself."

"Well it's not like you know the guy yourself, Mira," Matt grumbled.

"Maybe not, but he and Raynor had been on Dead Man's Rock before." Off of Matt's confused look, Mira pointed out, "When you and Raynor first met, you knew him as a Mar Sara colony marshal. However, he didn't get that role until he was the age of 24. What do you know of Raynor's life before that?"

"He never talked about that with the Raiders," Matt admitted. "It was only when Tychus was on the Hyperion that Jim began to shed even the slightest details about anything, and even then all he said was that the two of them got into all sorts of trouble."

"In 2495, Raynor and Tychus came to Deadman's Port on Dead Man's Rock," Mira explained. "Apparently they were being hunted by a sadistic bounty hunter named Ezekiel Daun. They came here and turned to the crime lord Scutter O'Banon for protection."

"Did it work?" the captain asked.

"Not exactly. O'Banon felt they were more trouble than they were worth, and eventually Raynor and Tychus left the planet. As for O'Banon himself, well he had only been taken care of recently."

"What are you talking about?"

"He too was one of the paid agents to do the Dominion's dirty work in taking care of business on Dead Man's Rock. Orlan and I didn't exactly get along well, but the two of us agreed to work together to boot O'Banon out of Deadman's Port, which we had done so only a matter of months ago. Neither one of us had wanted this world to be under Dominion rule."

Matt thought about this carefully, as the servants returned with cups of rich, fragrant black coffee for the two of them. Clearly his wife was a lot more intellectual than he had been expecting. Some of the things she had pointed out about Tychus were things that had never occurred to him, let alone have considered. A part of him now reconsidered his view on her, but the idealistic part of him simply wasn't having any of it.

At this point, the radio that Mira kept on her went off. "Commander, I think we have a situation here."

Mira frowned deeply. "I thought I told you not to disturb me and Matthew. Was that so hard to understand?" she spoke into the set.

"Trust me, I wouldn't have contacted you if it weren't something of the direst emergency. You need to see it to believe it."

The female mercenary sighed, but signaled one of the servants to bring in a projector into the room.

"This was something one of our boys in Paradise had caught on screen just minutes ago," the mercenary on the other end of the line said. "What you're going to see is live."

As the projector was wheeled in, Mira pressed a button on it, allow it to light up. Immediately, it showed an image of Dominion Dropship flying over the city of Paradise. This one however looked to be modified, with loudspeakers and special screens attached to the outside. As she wondered what the Dominion was planning, the speakers on the vessel suddenly began to blare out its message.

"Citizens of Dead Man's Rock, I am General Ridgeway of the Terran Dominion," the speakers blared. "Your world houses a dangerous mercenary leader by the name of Mira Han. She and her forces are ruthless to the core and are in possession of something that is vital to the Dominion military. My forces are here to neutralize the threat that Han poses. However, as this world is outside the boundaries of Dominion law, Mira Han has used her familiarity here to her advantage, hiding herself and her troops from the Dominion. We are aware that there are those in the settlements of Paradise and Deadman's Port that have come into contact with this dangerous mercenary and therefore may have information about her current whereabouts."

Matt and Mira exchanged concerned glances at each other before turning their heads to the projector once more. "It is our intention to locate Mira Han and bring her to Dominion justice. We understand that you dislike the Dominion presence on your world, so once she has been apprehended, the Dominion forces on Dead Man's Rock will withdraw from the planet immediately. However, I am also aware that there are many of you who had been manipulated and deceived by this mercenary, and the possibility that she had bought your loyalty, perhaps even with the promise of protection. To show that her promises are nothing but empty words, I will now show you a firsthand demonstration of the might of the Terran Dominion."

The screens attached to the Dropships suddenly lit up, as they showed an Apocalypse-class nuclear warhead on the back of an Ore Loader truck, out in the middle of the nowhere. From the faint silhouettes in the background, it was clear this location was on Dead Man's Rock.

Suddenly, the warhead detonated, and the whole screen was covered in a bright flash of light. As the image pulled back, Matt and Mira watched with wide eyes to see a gigantic mushroom cloud engulf the whole area.

"My Dominion forces are in possession of Apocalypse-class nuclear warheads, which possess a far greater destructive power than the standard tactical nuclear weapons in the Dominion arsenal," the message continued. "The explosion you had just witnessed was just one such warhead, which had been detonated out in one of the barren wastelands on Dead Man's Rock, where there were no civilians. This is just a small demonstration of the might of the Dominion. The mercenaries on this world possess outdated and inadequate military equipment that are completely inferior compared to those of my forces."

Mira knew that this Ridgeway person was right. Even if she did possess modern military equipment, they could not withstand an explosion of that magnitude.

"As I speak, the Dominion troops under my command are readying even more of these nuclear weapons we have at our disposal," Ridgeway said. "For those of you who do not wish to see your cities devastated by the Dominion, all you have to do is reveal Mira Han's whereabouts. Dominion patrols will be standing by on the outskirts of Paradise and Deadman's Port. For those of you who have the information we need, simply approach these patrols and deliver the information to us. If you choose not to, Paradise and Deadman's Port shall be our next targets which we shall eradicate off the surface of Dead Man's Rock. With your inferior military equipment, you know that you cannot prevail against the Dominion. The most that you would be able to accomplish is cause a few Dominion losses which we would be able to make good overnight, whereas your forces would be completely decimated. Make it easy for everyone here and do the right thing. Act in the best interests of your people and reveal the location of the mercenary leader Mira Han. You have 72 hours to comply with our request before my offer of salvation expires and we reduce your cities to dust. The decision lies in your hands, we await your answer."


	65. Chapter 65

**Author's Note: Only 3 weeks ago I got the new PC components, and therefore the testing to make sure there's no defectiveness is still far from complete. But since Blizzard announced Heart of the Swarm's release date back in November, I decided to resume the updates to my fic, at least for now. I hope to maintain a steady update speed for a while, but I can't promise anything.  
**

**As always, it's recommended that you re-read the last 5 chapters or so because as with most of my chapters, they take place right where the last one leaves off.  
**

**In this chapter we'll return to the situation with Nova on Tarsonis, since she hadn't been heard from for a few chapters, which means it's been many weeks since you last read on her situation.  
**

* * *

Chapter 65

**Bel'Shir**

General Madison listened to the situational report as one of his Dominion officers out in the field debriefed him. Although there have still not been any confrontation with the Tal'darim Protoss so far and thus no shots have been fired, it now looked as if confrontation would be near impossible to avoid.

The satellite that had been launched into high orbit that enabled the Command Center to conduct scanner sweeps had been blown out of the sky by Protoss ships. Reports from the BattleCruisers from high orbit over Bel'Shir have indicated that there were no signs of increased Tal'darim air activity, which seemed to suggest that the Protoss had believed that the satellite had been in high orbit since when the terrans had first touched down on the jungle moon, and that they merely forgot to destroy it when the terrans had evacuated Bel'Shir.

Nevertheless, Madison refused to take any chances. With the scanner sweep ability now gone, his forces could no longer detect Protoss Observers from long ranges, which meant that by the time they spot one of those robotic drones, it would have long since alerted the Tal'darim forces.

On the ground, the sound amplifiers for the springs were starting to fail in their intended actions as well. During the time Madison was gone, more and more Tal'darim Protoss had ventured near the water springs. This had forced the Dominion engineers to camouflage the amplifier devices as best they could with the jungle foliage. It had worked initially, but as the Protoss patrols in the water springs area had begun to increase, the engineers there had to remain on constant high alert.

Madison had already made plans to disassemble the amplifier devices and move them away from the water springs if the situation became too hectic, but such an action could not be accomplished in a matter of seconds. Yet sending marines there was not going to speed up the process. Virtually all the Dominion marines were mere grunts, they didn't have much skill beyond shooting up their enemies. The War Pigs he still had were slightly more intellectual, but it was still nothing compared to the technical knowledge by the Dominion engineers.

Only the Dominion officers had a slight chance of any useful assistance for them, but after their last battle with the Tal'darim, the Dominion officers too had been severely mauled. Only the upper echelon officers remained relatively safe, since their role was to command the troops from a distance, not from the front lines. More than 80 percent of the middle echelon officers were either killed or missing in action, and nearly 90 percent of the lower echelon officers suffered the same fate at the hands of the Tal'darim. Right now, the remaining marines, Reapers, and Marauders on the battlefield needed the leadership of those officers. They could ill afford to lose any more, regardless of rank.

With regards to the terrazine mining, the report proved slightly more promising. The remaining ghost agents had proven themselves to be successful at temporarily opening the Tal'darim altars, and the SCV pilots were becoming more efficient at harvesting the substance from it. By now, more than 250 canisters of terrazine had been collected. Although this is still considerably short from the 400 to 500 canisters that Mengsk had ordered his forces to obtain, it was nevertheless a remarkable success given the slender resources of both material and manpower at Madison's disposal.

The word regarding the dangers of the terrazine substance had been passed around rather quickly, and so far there have not been any instances where anyone had been exposed to the terrazine gas. Madison was relieved to hear that despite all the exhaustion and hardships his men were enduring, none of them had snapped and lost their heads yet.

Still, he had to know the locations of the Protoss Observers. Only that knowledge would keep his troops safe on the ground.

The BattleCruisers from high orbit could do nothing themselves, as they had no detector technology. Fortunately, some of the Dominion engineers on board proposed an alternative solution by using the Ravens.

Initially, Madison opposed this idea as while the Raven had detection technology, it couldn't cloak like the Protoss Observer could. Furthermore, compared to the other terran military aerospace craft, the Raven was relatively lightly armored, and could be easily shot down by Protoss Stalkers and Scouts. Furthermore, despite the limited Dominion intelligence on Protoss technology, it had been discovered that the detection ranges of the Raven and the Observer were relatively the same, which seemed to offer no advantage in the situation Madison was currently in.

Fortunately, the Dominion engineers were able to come up with a solution to this by removing the cloaking field generators from the Wraith fighters and installing them onto the Ravens. This was only a stop gap solution, however, as the Ravens were not designed to accommodate these generators. This meant that they could only operate on the battlefield for a short period of time, before being forced to return to the BattleCruiser hangars for engineering maintenance.

In addition, as Madison quickly pointed out, the Protoss Observers could remain cloaked indefinitely, whereas the cloaking generators on the terran spacecraft had a limited energy supply. This added even more drawbacks to the engineers' proposal.

Nevertheless, the general accepted. It wasn't the ideal solution that he had hoped for, but it was certainly better than nothing at all. If it worked, it could save the lives of everyone on the surface of Bel'Shir, including him. He remained frustrated at being denied reinforcements that he had requested to the emperor, which forced him and everyone under his command to make do with whatever they had at their disposal.

Many of his remaining officers shared the same frustration, and Madison promised them that if they all get out of this one alive, he would make appeals to the emperor about this. Every military operation depended on logistical support, and the general was not convinced that Mengsk would be so foolish as to believe the might of the Dominion military was so great that it could prevail even without the logistics.

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

"What are you doing here, Nova?" Mal asked, as the blond ghost pulled herself to her feet. "I may not know the details on Dominion ghost missions, but Tarsonis just seems like too huge a stretch to me."

Before Nova had a chance to answer, the wall near them began to crumble. From the tiny holes and cracks, the two of them could see an Ultralisk roaring in anger, and charging again to try and smash through the barrier.

"They'll be plenty of time for talk later," Nova said, pulling on his arm. "We've got to get out of here now before the Zerg barge in and we become their latest chew toys."

Kelerchian nodded. "Follow me, Nova. I've got a jeep nearby."

As the two of them took off running, Nova watched from behind as the Ultralisk smashed the wall down. From behind in, dozens of Zerglings were scurrying around it, and moving as fast as their legs would carry them towards her and Mal.

Channeling her psionic powers, she hurled a piece of debris at one of them, but this only served to slow it down for a moment. The others quickened their pace, and Nova knew that the Zerg were aware that she was no longer armed. Technically she still was, but a single round in her Flak Pistol was going to do squat against that much Zerg.

Suddenly, she felt a weapon being slipped into her hand. She turned her head to see Mal had pulled his Slugthrower pistol out of the holster and was giving it to her.

"Now that you're the most impressive ghost terrans have ever known, I figured it's better for you to take the shot than me," he told her. "When the Zerg are after you, every shot has to count."

"I'm with you on that one," Nova agreed, as she whipped her body around to open up against the Zerglings. The Slugthrower wasn't nearly as powerful in comparison to the Flak Pistol. The rounds were not explosive and thus had considerably less stopping power. Nevertheless, as the crack shot she was, she was able to aim right where hurt the Zerg creatures the most, and this had caused several Zerglings to slow down considerably while their regenerative abilities kicked in to heal their wounds.

By now, Hydralisks and Roaches had also joined in the chase, but thankfully, the two of them were still out of range of their needle spine and acid spit attacks. However, Nova knew the two of them couldn't keep running forever. Unless Mal's vehicle was nearby, they would soon tire out.

"Mal, how much further is that jeep?" she asked desperately. "The Zerg are starting to catch up!"

"Right here," he said, as the two of them rounded the corner of a ruined building. Mal yanked the cover off, revealing a Stinger jeep underneath. "It's not the only vehicle I've got, but it's certainly the only one meant for combat. Problem was the Dominion boys were too damn shortsighted. It takes one person to drive and another to fire the mounted 35mm cannon, and they didn't factor that in."

"You get behind the wheel and get us the hell out of here," Nova replied, climbing onto the vehicle and getting behind the high explosive cannon.

Mal nodded as he entered, starting up the engine. From behind him, he could hear the clatter of spent bullet casings as Nova opened up with the mounted gun, and the sounds of screaming Zerg served as a testament to her deadly skills.

But as he looked from the side mirror, he saw that although the 35mm cannon was cutting the Roaches and Hydralisks apart, more of them simply took their place. Behind them, the massive Ultralisks were also approaching.

He hit the ignition button, and the engine roared to life.

"Floor it, Mal!" Nova shouted, as the Stinger jeep began to move away from the area.

However, this was easier said than done. With the whole city in ruins, many of the streets were filled with rubble. In those cases, the Stinger was unable to navigate through. Mal gritted his teeth in frustration as he was again and again forced to make detours, and this only led to direct run-ins with the Zerg pursuers.

Nova was doing her best to keep the Zerg off away from the Stinger, but there were simply too many. Eventually she just began to concentrate fire on the Hydralisks and Roaches, as the Ultralisks couldn't move as quickly.

"Just run the Zerglings over," she told him. "We're not going to be able to kill them all, not with so many of them in the streets."

Mal was horrified. "They're swarming into the city?"

"As of a few hours ago," Nova confirmed, as Mal continued to drive onwards through the streets.

The Dominion agent looked at her, confused, but decided that was something to ask later. Right now, it was much more important to escape from the Zerg.

Despite the constant need to find alternative routes due to all the rubble strewn streets, Nova could see that the Zerg numbers on the ground after them were slowly decreasing. The ones in the air, however, were another matter. As the two of them continued their drive, Mutalisk attacks began to increase in ferocity. Although their Glaive Wurm attacks were not as effective against the jeep's armor as she had thought, the fact remained that the Stinger was not meant to combat aerial targets. While some of the Mutalisks were shot down as they swooped in too low and got caught in the line of fire, most continued to rain fire down on them from high in the air.

At this point, one of the rubble barriers in front of them suddenly forced itself apart, as an Ultralisk emerged through it, roaring in rage.

"Hang on, Nova!" Mal shouted. "I'm taking a detour!" Before she could protest, he swerved the jeep towards one of the ruined buildings. Thanks to the jeep's armor, it was able to smash the wall down without any significant damage.

But as the blond ghost was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the Ultralisk burst into the building with them, as the nearby walls around it exploded, revealing more Ultralisks also taking up the pursuit.

"You call this a detour!" she screamed over the sounds of gunfire as she emptied every round she could from the 35mm cannon into the Zerg beasts. Many of them roared in pain, but none of them slowed down.

"I know what I'm doing!" he shouted back.

As the jeep drove deeper into the building, Mal aimed it towards an exit window, before turning his head around. "Nova! The support beams! Hit it!"

Realizing his plan, she emptied the 35mm explosive rounds into the poles, and most of them quickly crumbled and broke apart. The whole building began to tremble as its structural stability had been weakened. Mal stepped on the gas pedal, and the Stinger jeep smashed through the glass window and onto the streets once more.

The Ultralisks, on the other hand, weren't as lucky. Due to their slow speed, they were all crushed to death as the building toppled on top of them.

However as Nova turned her head around to look ahead, she suddenly saw the ground right in front of them began to bulge upwards.

"Nydus Worm inbound!" she shouted. "Mal, veer around it!"

As the Stinger turned, a second Nydus Worm suddenly surfaced, this time right in front of them. Its maw opened up, and Nova could see hues of green Zerg crawling out of it. She knew immediately what that meant.

"They're going to use Banelings!" she shouted. "We have to move!"

The Banelings poured out, and as the entire front and immediate flanks were surrounded by them, Nova knew that they had no choice but to abandon the vehicle. Staying in it meant certain death, and there was no way the Stinger's armor could withstand an explosion from that many Zerg.

"Jump for it!" she shouted, grabbing Mal by the collar and pulling him with her. As she leapt into the air, the Banelings exploded in a pile of volatile acids, and the Stinger disintegrated right before their eyes.

Nova and Mal hit the ground, both of them having the wind knocked out of them. Nova had trained through scenarios like this numerous times even before she graduated from the Ghost Academy, so she was able to quickly recover. Mal, however, was not as fortunate. He was not used to this kind of combat, and therefore remained on the ground due to fatigue.

Luckily for them, the explosion caused by the Banelings was larger than the Zerg had expected, as even the Nydus Worms were engulfed in the acids and were rapidly dissolving. This was a sign of relief, but it could only be temporary.

"Come on, Mal," Nova said, tugging at his arm and picking up his Slugthrower pistol lying on the ground. "We have to go. The Zerg will be here in a few minutes."

"We're almost to my place," Mal said weakly, slinging his arm around Nova, as she helped him walk. He looked around his surroundings, before nodded. "Yeah according to the surroundings, it's less than two blocks from here."

"Then that's where we're going," the blond ghost said, as the two of them walked through the ruined city. "We're losing the daylight. We have to find a place to hole up. Zerg attacks at night are even more terrifying than by day."

"My place is in camouflaged in strewn rubble," Mal told her. "We can stay there, the Zerg won't find it."

"You certain?" Nova asked, concerned for his safety.

"Trust me, I know," he reassured her. "Once we're there, we'll be left in relative peace and quiet. It'll give us some time to catch up on what happened to each other the last time you and I met."

* * *

**Mercenary Base, Dead Man's Rock**

As Sarah walked down the Dropship ramp with Franklin and his squad, they could see that the entire underground military complex was in a frenzy of activity. The Raiders were looking over maps and blueprints, while Warfield's troops were loading up supplies and ammo into transports and the marines were loading up their rifles, preparing for an imminent assault. All over the complex, mercenaries were scurrying about. Some were barking orders to accelerate the preparations, others were working as fast as they could on maintenance on the military vehicles to ensure that they wouldn't break down in the heat of battle.

By now, she was sure that everyone had heard Ridgeway's announcement, and him threatening to use the Apocalypse-class nuclear weapons on Deadman's Port and Paradise if the whereabouts of Mira Han aren't revealed to him in 72 hours. This was forcing the planning schedule off balance for cooperation between the Raiders and the mercenaries. Nevertheless, Kerrigan was impressed to see that so far, none of the mercenaries under Mira's command had any intention of betraying her. However, there was no guarantee that the same would be true for all the other mercenary organizations elsewhere on Dead Man's Rock.

A group of mercenary officers were already waiting for her at the planning table, and Sarah approached with Franklin and the others. She knew that in order to have any success of dealing with the Dominion forces here, an assault would have to take place on their base in no more than 36 hours from now. The red haired ghost could see that although the mercenaries were doing their best, their preparations were nevertheless being far too rushed. Yet cutting corners simply wasn't an option. Everyone knew that they only had one shot to defeat the Dominion here, so they had to make it count.

"I hope you have some good news for us," one of the officers said. "We heard you located the Dominion base's location, and that you managed to infiltrate their base and got back here without a scratch on you."

"I have," Kerrigan agreed. "Some of what I'm about to say isn't exactly going to favor you though."

Another officer snorted. "With the threat of a nuclear strike looming over our heads, I doubt there's anything you have to say that could be bad news, so let's have it already."

"The Dominion base is located in a place called the Toxic Slums. From what I heard, it's out in the middle of nowhere, where toxic and radioactive waste is dumped."

"That place is hazardous even to us," the mercenary officer admitted. "For the vast majority of the time, the only reason we even bother doing out there is because of the junkyard next to the dumping ground. Every now and then we could find armor from the rusted vehicle hulks that are still of use to us."

"No one on Dead Man's Rock had ever made any plans to build any settlements even near that place," another officer stated. "The place is so toxic that if a town sprung up there, the whole population would die from sickness and cancer literally overnight."

"Do you have any maps that show the details of the area?" Franklin asked.

The officer gestured to a mercenary marine nearby, and he produced a tray of data chips. One of the officers picked up one data chip and slid it into the computer on the conference table. "We usually don't keep maps of that location. Everyone on the planet has a pretty rough idea of where it is, the radiation and all that is a dead giveaway. Other than the occasional scavengers from both mercenaries and civilians, that place always served as a garbage dump for so long that very few could imagine it could ever be used for anything else. No one ever suspected that one day it would suddenly become the focal point of modern military activity."

"No one blames you for that, but the fact remains that the Dominion base is there," Sarah explained, pointing to the map on the screen.

"You were in there yourself," one of the mercenaries said. "What did you find out about their strengths and weaknesses?"

"Any chance of sneaking in there undetected again is no longer possible," the ghost operative answered. "I got lucky when I was there because the boys in there were too arrogant to believe that anyone would be foolish enough to attack their base. However by the time I got extracted, Dominion SCV pilots were in the process of constructing missile turrets, and ringing the whole base perimeter around with them. Ravens from the Starports were also beginning their patrols in the sectors were the missile turret concentration is the sparsest."

"So we have to blast our way inside," Franklin concluded.

"That's not going to be as easy as you think either," Kerrigan told him. "I overheard some of their comm chatter. Some of the Ore Loader trucks were given orders to raid the junkyard and bring with them all the scrap they could carry."

"What for? The Dominion have modern military equipment already!"

"It's not about using it for their equipment," Sarah explained. "They intend to use the scrape all the rusted components together to create artificial mounds. Once they do that, they will be able to strategically position them around the approaches to the base. That way, in the event someone decides to assault them, the mounds will form barriers which will force the attackers to seek alternate routes, and thus channeling them into killing zones."

"That can't stop air assaults though," a mercenary officer pointed out.

"The Dominion already thought of that. Despite the vast amounts of waste in the Toxic Slums, the fact remains that there are still countless numbers of sealed toxic and radioactive barrels there. Some of the Dominion marines were ordered to load a number of those barrels onto trucks, where they would then be drive to designated locations and opened. According to the Dominion comm chatter that I heard, they hope that the increased concentration of radiation and toxicity would drive away any mercenaries attacking the base very quickly."

The officer growled in frustration. "They aren't exactly wrong about that. Unlike the Dominion, we don't exactly have the high quality CMC Armor that would protect us from the waste exposure. We get exposed to too much of that for too long, we'll die from radiation poisoning."

"That's exactly what the Dominion troops in there are counting on, soldier," Franklin told him. "They think you'd value your lives too much, so if you choose to attack, you'll quickly back down because you'll see that the casualties would be too appalling for you to take."

"That's why I'd like for us to reach a consensus right now," Sarah spoke out. "Since right now it looks like everyone is getting ready for the assault, I propose that once the assault begins, we continue fighting until the Dominion base is destroyed. No exceptions to this, regardless of what changing circumstances occur on the battlefield or however many casualties any of us take. Once we begin, we don't stop until the job is done."

She could see the hesitation on some of the officers' faces. Not that she blamed them for any of it, though. The only way their casualties could be kept to a minimal was to rely heavily on the Raiders.

"What about the nuclear weapons?" Another officer asked. "Did you find anything on that?"

Kerrigan nodded. "You won't have to worry about an excess of those. I infiltrated the Dominion Command Center in the base. From what I got, Ridgeway only had three Apocalypse-class nuclear warheads to begin with. He already detonated one of them to send a message, just in case anyone said he didn't have the guts to set off a nuclear bomb."

"What about the remaining two?"

"As of this moment, they're both still in the Dominion base. According to the Dominion officers, the remaining warheads have been stored underground in some waste processing facility or something."

The officer rubbed his chin. "Over 70 years ago, an attempt had been made to try and reduce the sheer amount of toxic waste. A light industrial facility was built for just that purpose, but the people that built it were far too shortsighted. They had expected the amount of waste dumped there to eventually decrease, and instead the exact opposite happened. Within a matter of months, the people there were completely overwhelmed with work, and virtually nothing had been achieved."

"So the plan was scrapped?" Sarah asked.

"Exactly, but the facility was never destroyed, it merely fell into disrepair. However as it had been built underground, it didn't suffer as badly compared to everything built above the surface. Nothing in the facility should still be operational, but it certainly still had the potential to serve as an excellent storage place. The problem was that as it was in the middle of a toxic nightmare, no one ever had the nerve to even try to enter that place."

"It's the perfect location to hide the warheads then," Franklin commented. "Being underground, they'd be safe from both ground and aerial assaults." He shook his head, disgusted. "It means we can't just stay in the air and level the Dominion base that way. We have to go in on foot to deal with the nuclear weapons."

"That's exactly what they want us to do," Sarah said. "When I left the base, Dominion troops were beginning to fortify the facility entrance. They know we would make every attempt to get in there or seal it off to prevent the warheads from leaving the area, so speed will be crucial in our assault."

"There's only so much we can do," Franklin pointed out, looking at her. "We've only got a part of our military strength here on Dead Man's Rock. The vast majority of our forces are still rebuilding and assembling on Aiur."

"Yes, this was something we factored in as well," the officer said. "As we speak, Mira Han is sending the word out to as many mercenary groups all over the planet. She's trying to appeal to them for unity in dealing with the Dominion. Don't know if it'll succeed or not though. Something like this has never been done before."

Franklin nodded in understanding. "Well unfortunately we can't count on that alone. Everyone needs to accelerate the preparations for the assault. You mercenaries handle your parts, we'll handle ours."

"Eventually you're going to need to deal with the Dominion troops without my help," Sarah said to him. "Once we can breach the base perimeter I've got to get in that facility and disarm the warheads. If one of them detonates down there, it'll turn the whole area into a radioactive crater."

"Then let's hope Horner and Mira will be able to put aside their differences and work together on this one," another officer spoke up. "I doubt it's going to be easy, but we don't exactly have a choice here."

* * *

**Mal's Hideout, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Mal punched in a code on the keypad, and the door slid open. Nova helped him inside, as he was still a little shaky after their encounter with that much Zerg. She felt another wave of guilt wash over her. Mal may have saved her life, but he was only getting older, whereas she still maintained her youth for the time being. During her days as a Dominion ghost she had seen her share of people who remained physically strong despite their age, but they represented a very small minority of the total population.

Regardless, both of them had gotten to Mal's place relatively unhurt, save for maybe a few scratches. He had been right about the fact that the Zerg would have difficulty in locating it. She found it hard to believe it was there herself until Mal had shown her.

The hideout was located in the middle of a collapsed building, with rubble strewn all around it. Given the devastation the Zerg had caused during their invasion of Tarsonis, it looked the same as everywhere else. Thus little effort was needed to camouflage the entrance given all the scenes of destruction around it.

It was the only thing that was above ground, too. The two of them had walked down a corridor that led underground, until they finally reached the main entrance. Now she was standing in the middle of his living room. It certainly wasn't luxurious, but then again she never really saw Mal as that type of person who preferred items of royalty nature or anything like that. There were no priceless paintings, valuable artworks, or anything like that, and the room as a whole was relatively dark.

It suddenly reminded her of her own character only a year ago, when she had been assigned to investigate the planet of Altara. She had been cold and ruthless back then, and preferred the dark as it reflected her own character.

After the short time she spent with the Raiders, Nova realized just how much she had changed, and just by looking around she could see that the living room somewhat reflected Kelerchian's character of soberness. In retrospect it wasn't too much different from Jim's quarters during the time she had spent aboard the Hyperion.

The blond ghost saw that she had an obligation to Mal in a very similar way that Sarah had to Jim. Despite being a shattered man when they had first met, Nova saw Jim's mood had considerably improved in the aftermath of the Char invasion. There was obviously still a long way to go, but most of the crew were glad to see he was finally on his way to recovery.

With Mal, although she couldn't quite understand the reasons behind his gloom and everything, she would do the same. Before joining up with the Raiders, he had been the man that she cared about more than anyone else. The ordeal with Cole Bennett and the Spectres in 2503 was a clear testament to that.

For that reason, she hoped the two of them could finally sit down and talk it out. Since the Spectres conflict, the two of them only worked together one last time in order to get the young girl Lila off of Altara and settled on Korhal. Nova personally wanted something better for the 12 year old girl, instead of ending up in the Ghost Program as she did. After that, she and Mal went their separate ways once more, where she had been assigned to more Dominion assassination missions.

"Next time I'll be sure to venture out with more firepower," Mal said, limping across the room.

"Are you going to be all right?" Nova asked, concerned.

"I'll be fine," he assured her. "Just give me a couple hours of rest and I'll be good as new. You should do the same, Nova." He pointed in finger in another direction. "There's a guest room right over there, and Zerg activity has always been minimal at night."

She was just about to object when Mal raised his hand to stop her. "You don't have to put on a show for me, I know you're also exhausted right now. Get some rest, and we can talk about it in the morning, all right?"

Nova nodded silently, before turning around and headed for the guest room. As the door closed behind her, she smiled silently. It was good to be among old friends once more.


	66. Chapter 66

**Author's Note: Blackhole1, you were getting too far ahead of yourself in the last review. Did you really think I was going to introduce Mal Kelerchian into the fic and then not explain how he ended up in Tarsonis City in the first place?**

**There will of course be some other viewpoints in this chapter. One of which I wanted to make goes all the way back to chapter 28, where I talked about Duran having retrieved Kerrigan's severed wing on Ulaan that Zeratul cut off (remember the "Whispers of Doom" cinematic).  
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**Overall, however, this chapter is dedicated to Nova Terra and Mal Kelerchian's relationship. I think you'll enjoy reading it because you never read the books "Starcraft Ghost: Nova" and "Starcraft Ghost: Spectres".  
**

**For those of you who have, you'll see the references in this chapter quite easily.  
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**As always, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 66

**Unknown Location**

Duran looked on as the experimental cloning process continued for the hybrids. The area was lined with cloning vats, as far as his eyes could see. All in all, thousands had already been successfully cloned, all of which could be easily awakened with a simple gesture from either him or his master.

The later cloned hybrids proved to be a greater success compared to the ones during the initial stages. Both the cloned versions of the Hybrid Reavers and Hybrid Destroyers were able to wield the powers of their original counterparts much more effectively, in some cases equally as effective. Their strength and durability remained an issue, however, as the whole accelerated cloning process had forced certain sacrifices to be made, and this was among them.

Still, he knew that this was not to be a problem at all, since their offensive capabilities would more than make up for such a deficiency. Nothing the terrans wield were capable of taking down the hybrids, as the cloned hybrid had demonstrated all too well in the Dominion lab at Castanar. The Protoss certainly could, but they were still too divided on the matter at hand, and Duran knew that this could be used to his master's advantage.

Yet the problem of obedience remained. It had been his hope that this difficulty could be overcome in the later cloned hybrids, but the results had fallen far short of expectations. During the initial trial periods, they had demonstrated loyalty to his master, but unfortunately this trait only lasted a few minutes. After that, they became rampant and rebellious once more, and were no longer responsive to the Fallen One's orders. Duran had made an attempt to correct this mistake by genetically altering the cloned hybrids to obey him instead, where his master would then be able to command them through him. However, he was again frustrated by failure, as the cloned hybrids proved as unresponsive to him as they were to the Fallen One.

His master's patience was also starting to wear thin. Although he continued to allow the cloning process to continue, the cloned hybrids would be little more than mere paperweights unless a more effective method could be used command them. Otherwise, they could simply attack everybody once unleashed onto the battlefield, and both he and Duran had no intention of allowing them to eradicate the Zerg before they had served their purpose.

Fortunately, there might be a stroke of luck that had finally wandered into his grasp. Ulrezaj had done well in retrieving what he had required on Char. The components that the Dark Archon had obtained within the infested terran Command Center, along with the tissue samples of the massive, lumbering Zerg beast that lay dormant in the depths of Kerrigan's main hive, would prove invaluable for his plans.

Ulrezaj still did not comprehend the full details of his intentions. To an extent, even his master had initially been somewhat confused with regards to where Duran was taking this. As his plans began to unfold, however, the Fallen One quickly began to understand.

Not that his master was particularly impressed with his actions so far, however. After the failure of Maar in his actions to kill Zeratul and prevent him from uncovering further clues regarding the Xel'Naga prophecy, along with James Raynor's victory on Char that de-infested Kerrigan and the understanding by the Protoss in what role she was to play, the terrans and Protoss were increasingly becoming a severe source of frustration in the face of the grand scheme.

Nevertheless, plans were already in motion to salvage the situation. Although the psionic energies within Kerrigan's severed wing could not be incorporated into the hybrids, it merely meant that a different type of thinking was required in order to use the specimen, and this was exactly the purpose for the massive experiment vat that stood before Duran now.

The concept of Kerrigan's psionic energies during her time with the Zerg was a complicated issue, as Duran had quickly discovered. Still, a way in which to harness that energy was certainly not beyond someone of his genius. During her time as the Queen of Blades, Kerrigan's psionic powers had enhanced the Zerg presence within her, and vice versa. It was clear proof that the psionic energies could certainly be incorporated into the Zerg.

On the other hand, among the concepts of the hybrids was to assimilate the strengths of the Zerg and Protoss species and unite them together. That Kerrigan's wing could not be incorporated into the mix simply meant that a different method was needed to combine Protoss and Zerg strengths. Once that barrier was overcome, the rest would be a relatively simple task.

For the time being, Duran focused his efforts on the massive concentration of Zerg biomass that rested within the vat. If his plan proves to be successful, nothing the terrans and Protoss wield would have the power to stop his master. Kerrigan herself would prove equally ineffective, and the rest of the universe would soon follow them into oblivion.

* * *

**Mal's Hideout, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Nova groaned slightly as she swung her legs over the side the bed. Mal hadn't been wrong about her exhaustion the night before. She had been operating on little more than adrenaline due to the constant threat of the Zerg. When he had convinced her that there was little risk of them being discovered at his place and therefore the chances were slim that there would be any hostile activity for the night, that adrenaline had simply evaporated.

Indeed, so exhausted she had been the night before that she fell into a deep sleep in barely a minute after hitting the bed. Fighting that much Zerg all by herself had clearly taken a toll on her, and she could still feel the aching in some of the muscles in her body.

She was not exactly in the most optimal condition for further fighting, but Nova knew she had little choice in the matter. Even if by some miracle that none of the Zerg in the city are able to locate the hideout, there was still the problem of the Dominion forces. Although she was more used to operating by herself than with the Dominion military, she had enough experience to know that they were very experienced in detecting camouflage. She had no intention of allowing Mal to become a casualty if she could help it.

For that reason, she knew she had to get out of this place soon and reestablish contact with Jim. Warfield's troops out on the battlefield had a very capable commander, and Nova knew that Jim had far more experience dealing with the Zerg compared to her. Nevertheless, she also knew that all of them still had endurance limits. Unless the Zerg ceased their attacks, which obviously was not going to happen, they would eventually tire out.

At this point the door opened, and Mal stepped into the room. "Good morning, Nova. I hope you're feeling better," he said, smiling at her.

The blond ghost smiled back. "Well you were right about the night's rest, Mal. I guess I needed it more than I thought." The smile suddenly turned into a frown. "There wasn't any unusual activity last night, was there?"

"Just the usual rats crawling around outside, nothing more," he answered. "It's been like this for quite a while. I'm used to it. Wasn't exactly used to a concentrated Zerg attack, but there wasn't any activity from them last night. They certainly haven't found this place."

Nova nodded in understanding. "That may well be, but it doesn't have to be true now that it's daytime. You know as well as I do that the Zerg aren't just going to give up on their search."

"Don't be so uptight," Mal replied. "All the time I've been here there, it's always been relative peace and quiet."

"Yeah but you also just said you didn't expect a major Zerg concentration in the city," she pointed out. "And that would mean this isn't one of your normal situations."

"Even so I feel we still have some time," he said calmly, before gesturing to her to follow him. "You want some breakfast? You looked like crap when I checked up on you just an hour ago."

"I've...been through a lot recently," Nova admitted. To be quite honest, reflecting back on everything that's happened ever since she joined up with the Raiders, a part of her could hardly believe everything she had gone through. Fighting against the Dominion was one thing, but going up against Protoss for some alien artifact was quite another. That and the near constant fighting against the Zerg, reaching its climax at Char when Kerrigan had been de-infested. And even then it didn't achieve peace.

Fighting the Zerg on Agria was a lot easier. After dealing with so many of them on Char, she had actually felt relieved when fighting them on Dr. Hanson's world. The raid on New Folsom had brought another nasty shock to her, when she had discovered that the rumors regarding the Dominion project regarding Gestalts were actually true.

With regards to what happened on Aiur however, that was another story. She had been relieved at finally being able to fight alongside the Protoss to clear the Zerg from their homeworld, but she was also disappointed in that despite Jim's best efforts, none of them were ready to accept Sarah. In fact, the way she saw it, all Jim had managed to achieve when the three of them had stood before the Protoss council was to convince them to observe what Sarah was like now that she was no longer infested. While she didn't read any of their minds, it was not necessary for her to see that none of them had any intentions of letting their anger go after everything the Queen of Blades had done to them. To Nova, it was obvious that the Protoss still had every intention of punishing Sarah once she had played her role in the prophecy. That Nahaan tribal leader had proved to be the most vicious of them all, as he looked like as if he was going to leap across the room and skin Sarah alive.

To that end she was glad that Kerrigan was on Dead Man's Rock right now. It was certainly no paradise planet, but compared to the sheer amount of hatred from the Protoss on Aiur, it was certainly the better choice.

"Well, you and I can talk that over," Mal suggested, snapping the blond ghost out of her thoughts. "Come on, you could use a little break from all the fighting right now."

A part of Nova wanted to refuse, as she didn't want to put him in any more danger, but he had always been kind to her, and it resulted in a form of attachment to him. She thought back at when he had rescued her from Fagin on Tarsonis a few years ago, and how grateful she had been towards him. Later on during the ordeal with the Spectres, she had put her duty as a Dominion ghost operative aside in order to save his life.

Very soon, the emotional part of her won out, and she felt compelled to stay with him and talk everything over. Giving him a curt nod, she stood up and followed him out the room and into the hallway.

* * *

**Mal's Hideout, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

"It's certainly not a place a luxury, but it's a living," Mal said, as the two of them sat down at the table. In front of both of them were two plates of fried eggs and toast, along with cups of coffee.

Nova winced slightly as the heavy dark liquid poured down her throat. She wasn't used to drinking coffee like this, especially not in the case where it's just black coffee and nothing more. "You wouldn't happen to have any sugar and cream to go along with this, would you?" she asked.

Mal chuckled. "Always suspected there was sweetness in you, Nova. Guess that applies to your tastes as well."

She couldn't help but laugh at that, as he opened one of the cabinets and produced a few sugar and cream packets. "It's really good to see you again, Mal. It's been a while since the last time we crossed paths."

"I'm glad to see the Dominion memory wipes haven't left you an empty shell," he replied, and Nova cringed slightly at that. He still didn't know she no longer served the Dominion anymore.

"You seem a lot more open than the last time I saw you from a year ago," Mal continued. "Looks like you have even greater endurance than I thought. Subjected to some of the worst things the universe could offer, and you made it through. After all the hell you went through in the Gutter with the criminals and drug dealers, along with what you and I both had to go through with the Spectres, you've not only endured, but grown stronger from it. All this time I knew you would continue to show your beauty and spirit, and once again, it looks like I'm right. You retained those qualities despite you're still the most impressive ghost I've seen, and probably would ever see."

Nova mentally reminded herself that she would tell him about Kerrigan shortly. Her psionic powers were strong, but Sarah's were much stronger. "So what happened to you since the last time we met?" she asked. "We both went our separate ways after picking up Lila from Altara."

"You still remember all that?" Mal asked, confused. "I would have thought the memory wipes would have erased a lot of details like those."

"I'll tell you my story if you tell me yours," she assured him. "I'm sure you have questions of your own."

"That I do," he said, before addressing Nova's question. "I eventually had Lila sent to the Dominion fringe world of Agria. It was a farming colony, and the Dominion takes little interest there in recruiting people from that world to become part of their military."

Nova's eyes widened. That world was among the ones that the Zerg had overrun and infested during their invasion. "What happened to her? You are aware that the Zerg invasion had overrun that planet, right?"

"Of course. But I also checked up on the UNN news. Apparently James Raynor and his rebels had helped the people down there evacuate, and then later on cleared the Zerg from their world so they could all go back home. Lila was among the people who got evacuated, and I contacted the people there. It's been confirmed that she's back on Agria again, safe and sound."

Nova breathed a sigh of relief. The girl was so much like her when she was young, and she was glad to hear that she didn't end up as a casualty of war.

"As for myself, I was given the assignment to come here on Tarsonis," Mal continued.

"I don't quite see the point," Nova said, confused. "This whole planet has been decimated since the Zerg overran it. The Dominion may have claimed to have it restored to its former glory and all that, but you can clearly see that's still a long ways to go."

"I'm aware of that. The emperor wanted me to settle down in Tarsonis City and keep a close eye on the settlers coming to the planet."

The blond ghost raised an eyebrow. "What settlers?"

"Well, after the Brood War four years ago, the Zerg simply went silent," Mal explained. "Initially, people were afraid to come to Tarsonis because of what the Zerg had done to it back in the day. Don't forget, prior to the Zerg invasion, this planet had a population of well over 2 billion people. By the time the carnage was over, the place was reduced to a ghost town. However when the Brood War ended, most of the Zerg on Tarsonis simply left the planet. In the years that followed, a few terrans decided to take the risk that the Zerg would remain quiet, and thus return to Tarsonis for settlement. Emperor Mengsk may have ordered this planet in the Dominion quarantine zone and thus no settlers allowed, but that certainly didn't stop people from trying."

"So how does that relate to you being here?" Nova asked.

"Well, prior to the recent Zerg invasion, there were about 7000 terrans living on the planet. Initially they had tried to disperse, but the devastation caused by the Zerg meant that most places they tried to settle down in didn't have the most fundamental amenities to survive. This meant most of them were forced to relocate and resettle very close to Tarsonis City. As the capital of Tarsonis, the city was the ultimate beacon of prosperity during the days of the Confederacy. As such, it meant that the basic tools of survival lay in the ruins of this city, and it's common to see scavengers coming here to search for their basic needs, including children."

"And you were to keep an eye on them," she concluded.

"Exactly," Mal replied. "Don't forget, I'm a wrangler, so I have psionic powers as well, though usually only to detect telepaths at short distances. This was the position I was given after the fall of the Confederacy and the formation of the Dominion. The emperor wanted me here in the event some of the children had high psionic signatures. If so, my job is to report to the Dominion authorities right away, and they would judge if the child is a good candidate for the Ghost Program or not. Thus it took little effort when I detected such a high psychic signature just recently, though I didn't expect it to be you."

He took a bite of his toast before continuing, "Regardless, the Dominion has its hands full right now. The Zerg invasion may have been stopped, but what had happened on Korhal had caused a devastating blow to the Dominion. I was actually surprised that they managed to get the rioting to quiet down after what the broadcasts had revealed."

Mal pointed at Nova's silver hostile environment suit that she still wore. "That's actually something that got me curious for a while now," he said, gesturing to the insignia patch on her left shoulder. "That's not the insignia of the Terran Dominion, it belongs to the rebel group of James Raynor. Makes me wonder what happened to you since the last time you and I met."

Nova smiled slightly at that. "What did they tell you about what happened on Korhal, Mal?"

"Just the bits and pieces," he answered. "The Dominion was supposed to show off some powerful walker machine called the Odin, but when it arrived, it suddenly went rogue on them and began attacking Dominion troops. They were all dazed and confused, and during that time Raynor and his Raiders were able to upload transmissions to the UNN Studio's broadcasting towers."

"Anything else?"

"Well, even now the Dominion authorities are still confused how the hell Raynor pulled it off. The military there had sufficient manpower to drive the Raiders out of the city, and when they had arrived at the broadcasting towers, they could find no trace of anyone there," Mal shook his head. "It doesn't make any sense to me. Raynor may be good, but even he has limits. To leave not a trace of anyone at the broadcasting tower, yet still breach their security, would require ghost operatives. And not just any standard ones either, they'd have to know the Dominion's tactics well enough to avoid detection."

Suddenly, the circuit closed in Mal's brain, as Nova's look and what he just said clicked together. His jaw dropped to the floor. "Wait a minute! That ghost operative who infiltrated UNN Studios was _you?_"

Nova burst out laughing. "You should have seen the look on your face, Mal!" she said, regaining her composure and spreading her hands. "But to answer your question, guilty as charged."

Kelerchian sputtered, trying to get the right words out. "But...but...but you're a Dominion ghost! You said it yourself that you had a duty to those you pledged your life to! You had served the Dominion for their best interests! What the hell caused you to turn on them?"

"It's a long story," she replied. "Some parts of it I'm still having trouble believing it myself. I've got to tell you this though: during the time I've spent with the Raiders, well let's just say some of the craziest things I've gone through with the Dominion were nothing in comparison."

Mal nodded. "Well I've told you my side of the story. Why don't you start from the beginning, Nova. I'm interested to hear just how you went from a Dominion ghost operative to a Raider rebel."

"Of course," Nova said. "Let me tell you everything."

* * *

**Waste Disposal Facility, Toxic Slums, Dead Man's Rock**

Dominion marines saluted as Captain Bock walked passed them. He personally disliked this waste disposal facility, the stench here was no better than elsewhere in the Toxic Slums. Signs of wear and tear were everywhere in the building, and he could see broken pipes along the corridor walls. Some of them still dripped toxic waste, while others had been completely eaten away by corrosive acids. All the machinery in the facility were rusted and offline. Most were beyond repair, though a select few looked like there was still a very slight chance of restoration.

It mattered little to him. He was a soldier, not an engineer. The technology concepts could be left to them. In his case, it was more of a matter of point and shoot, and the nuclear weapons here only added to the destruction.

Ridgeway had intended to have the weapons ready to be moved out of the base in a matter of hours, and Bock was looking forward to wiping the cities of Dead Man's Rock off the planet. It was certainly a quick way of ridding the Dominion's problems: if this world was so hard to control, it'd be better to simply to burn it to the ground instead.

This was exactly what he hoped would happen, as one of the marines began his report to him.

"Sir, the entrance fortifications are almost complete," he said. "We've placed Goliath walkers and auto-turrets to deal with any airborne threats in case they try to seal it off. Siege tanks have been positioned where their artillery cannons could shell just about any and all approaches to the entrance itself. If anyone is foolish enough to come in on the ground and try to break into the facility, the tanks will make short work of them."

"What about our detectors?" Bock asked. "Most of the mercenaries have outdated equipment, but we may still have to factor in the possibility that they may have Wraiths at their disposal."

"The Ravens here will do their patrol duty," came the reply. "You just said it yourself that their technology is too old, so it's not like they'd have very many Wraiths, assuming they have any at all. The SCVs will build a few missile turrets here at the facility entrance, and whatever cloaked units they've got will get shredded long before they can reach the doorway."

The captain nodded, satisfied with that answer. "And the status of the nuclear weapons?"

"They're almost 700 feet below ground," another marine answered. "Even if by some miracle the mercs are able to make it past the defenses and reach the facility, their casualties would be appalling. Now, assuming they actually chose to remain stupid and tried to make the facility collapse on itself and bury the weapons in there, it's not likely going to happen. Getting past our defenses would require a tremendous amount of firepower on their end. If they're able to reach the facility entrance it's like that they would have to exhaust all their ordinance to make it happen."

"I have no intention of letting that happen," Bock said. "Especially since it is my hope that we'll still use the weapons."

The marines around him looked slightly confused. "Sir?"

"Don't be stupid, you know what I'm getting at," the captain stated smugly. "In just over 60 hours from now, the general's offer is going to expire. Personally I would never have given them that long to begin with, but that's one of the drawbacks of having such crappy technology on Dead Man's Rock: it takes a longer time to respond."

"You think the people here won't give up Mira Han's whereabouts?" one of the marines asked.

"In all honesty, I don't really care. Hopefully they will so it'd save us a lot of time. But regardless of their choice, we'll more than likely be using the weapons anyway."

"I thought the Dominion military had more honor than that," another marine protested.

"Against regular terran enemies," Bock reminded him. "The people are Dead Man's Rock are all criminals, prostitutes, drug dealers, and scumbags. Whatever morals and ethics the army has don't apply to them. They're not capable of reform, so we'd be doing everyone in the sector a favor by killing them. Besides, it's just the cities of Paradise and Deadman's Port, not the whole planet population."

The marines looked at one another as Bock continued, "People, you may want to remember that once we get the information we want, the people of this world will be at our mercy. By that point, all they could do is hope that we honor our word. If we choose not to, there's nothing they can do about it."

"Except maybe spread the word," a marine stated.

The captain rolled his eyes. "Like that could actually accomplish anything. No faction would be stupid enough to waste their military resources to protect a bunch of scoundrels and drug addicts, especially once they see they're going up against the most powerful military force in the sector."

He could see there was slight skepticism on some of their faces. "Look, that's a bridge we can cross later. For now, have the transport ships prepare. In the unlikely event that this base gets attacked, I want the nuclear weapons to be on their way to Paradise and Deadman's Port as soon as possible."

* * *

**Mal's Hideout, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Mal was having a hard time taking it all in as Nova finished her story. "I find this hard to believe, Nova. The terrans have been fighting the Zerg for years. Now you're saying all this time they may never have been an evil force to begin with?"

"It sounds crazy, but from what I've gathered from the prophecy, that's just how it goes," the blond ghost answered. "Nothing I've been through with the Raiders since then seems to deny that."

"Well it's not like you've really gotten much to support this theory either," he pointed out.

"I'll give you that," Nova agreed. "This is why we need to get back to Aiur once we're done here on Tarsonis. The only one that may have more clues about this Xel'Naga prophecy is the Zerg master himself, the Overmind."

"But you said it died on that planet years ago!"

"The Protoss have a way to pull memories out of the creature despite that," she assured him. "Remember, their technology is better than ours, so a lot of things they can accomplish are things that we would classify as completely impossible."

The wrangler thought about this briefly, before deciding to move on. "It just seems odd to have the Protoss as an ally. Don't forget, when we first encountered the Zerg, their ships came in and just incinerated everything on every Zerg infested planet to kill them. They didn't give a damn about the terrans on the surface."

Nova shrugged. "You have to look at it from another way, Mal. Every planet the Zerg ever lands on, everyone settled there are either killed or infested. You and I have both seen the effects of the infestation and everything. Do you honestly see a way to cure something like that?" When he shook his head, she continued, "And that was exactly what the Protoss were thinking. They felt that once infested, the only way to remove the Zerg from the person is to have him killed."

Mal looked disgusted. "You know I bet they wouldn't jump to such a conclusion if some of their own ever got infested. But I've never heard of an infested Protoss before."

"That's something I don't understand either," Nova admitted. "Regardless, terran technology has improved over the last four years. Dr. Hanson was able to cure the infestation for her people, despite the Protoss wanting to kill them all on Haven."

"From what you told me, it would seem like the Zerg infestation virus has improved as well. Four years ago, anyone who ever came into contact with it got turned into mindless zombies. According to you, the infestation on Meinhoff showed some of the infested still had a little bit of free will and humanity in them."

"That's just part of their evolutionary chain. Jim let me see the notes his scientist Stetmann had wrote regarding the Zerg tissue samples in the Hyperion lab. According to them he explained just how fast the Zerg can adapt and evolve. What humans can evolve in 100,000 years, the Zerg can do in less than one hour. Not that I share his fascination about studying them, but it's always good to know something about your enemy."

"Speaking of enemies, what about Kerrigan?" Mal asked. "You said it yourself that despite whatever that alien artifact did to her on Char, there's still Zerg blood in her. And you said that you saw she still retained the accelerated healing rate all Zerg possess. So how can you be sure she's no longer the Queen of Blades?"

"Given the way she's acted since the Char invasion and her actions during her time with the Zerg, I'm not convinced she ever _was_ the Queen of Blades to begin with. Jim isn't either, but the others are finding that hard to believe."

"I'm among them. Not to mention I find it hard to accept the matter of forgiveness."

"You're far from the only one," the blond ghost said, shifting a little in her seat. "For most, and this applies to both terrans and Protoss, they don't really care that she no longer looks like the Queen of Blades anymore. They still hold her responsible for everything that Zerg monster did in the last four years. Jim made numerous attempts to convince others that everything that had happened was due to the Zerg infestation, and that Sarah had nothing to do with it, but very few are willing to even consider that. Many of them say that his love for her was completely blinding him to reason."

"How's she taking all this?"

"Very pessimistically," Nova admitted. "She's not willing to let go of everything that's happened. She feels if she convinces herself that she was never the Queen of Blades, then she'd be shirking the responsibility of everything she did. Nor does she feel any better about the future. She continues to believe the moment she's done her part in all this, the Protoss will have her killed, assuming they're even willing to trust her."

"I can't say I'd feel any differently," Mal stated. "Once you've killed that many, I don't see just _what_ you can do to earn forgiveness or redemption."

"Were you even listening to what I told you about the prophecy? Sarah is needed to stop Armageddon!"

"Because it doesn't make any sense," he countered. "From what you told me, the Zerg had been enslaved by some outside force some time ago, and whatever is controlling them intends to use them to destroy the universe. As such, this Overmind infested Kerrigan in an attempt to prevent that outcome. But ever since she became infested, all Kerrigan did was destroy entire planets and kill the people on them, for both terrans and Protoss alike. Since the start of the recent Zerg invasion, more than 8 billion terrans have already been killed, and all so that she could gain more power. What kind of a savior is that?"

"I don't know," Nova said, weakening slightly under his logic. "All I know is that right now the specific details of the prophecy aren't clear yet. Until we know more, this is only speculation."

"I just find the whole thing illogical," the wrangler said, spreading his hands. "Still, the Korhal broadcasts proved Mengsk had lied about Kerrigan turning against him and all that."

"Mengsk left her on Tarsonis because she felt it was wrong to use the Zerg to kill the Confederacy," she said bitterly. "More than 2 billion people died during the Zerg invasion back then simply because he wanted power. That was the message that the Raiders had wanted for a _long_ time, and Jim's success on Korhal had weakened the emperor's position."

"Yeah but it wasn't enough to kick him off the throne," Mal explained. "The Dominion military has quelled all the rioting and all that, though it doesn't appear there's anything they can do about the tensions that still remain. I must admit I'm curious to see just what the emperor can do about that."

"That's the reason why Jim and I are here on Tarsonis, Mal. It was from here that the Dominion was formed in the first place. If there's any more evidence about Mengsk's criminal actions back then, this city would be a good place to start looking."

Mal let out his breath. "It just seems like a horrible place for you, Nova. This was where I found you, having been brutalized in the Gutter by the crime lord Fagin."

"I have all my memories back now," she told him. "Jim's Protoss allies helped undo the memory wipes and everything. I remember everything that happened, where all the tragedies began, starting with my family's assassination."

"And you're holding on to it? I thought you said you wanted all the voices in your head to stop," Mal protested. "That's why you volunteered for the Ghost Program. You wanted the memory wipe. Now you prefer to have the memories back?"

"It was traumatizing to get it back, I'll give you that," Nova agreed. "But Jim and Sarah both taught me something called endurance. I didn't understand that when I was a Dominion ghost operative, but I do now. Sarah endured four years of Zerg infestation and still retained her free will, while Jim suffered just as long of losing the woman he loved and couldn't do a damn thing about it. Both of them were traumatized far more than I had been, yet they both endured."

"If you remember everything, then you also remember the six months you spent as a servant to Fagin," Mal pointed out. "Can you honestly say you didn't endure during that time?"

"That's not the point, Mal," the ghost explained. "Compared to what Jim and Sarah went through in four years, six months is virtually nothing. Besides, you forget that after Kerrigan had been abandoned on Tarsonis, the Zerg took her and had her infested against her will. It's not like they gave her a choice to become the Queen of Blades or anything like that. Because of that, Jim was never given a choice for the suffering he went through either."

"And you think your case was different?"

"Well that's obvious. I told you I wanted the Ghost Program because it would erase those traumatic memories, remember?" Nova reminded him. "I could have chosen to endure, like Jim and Sarah had, but instead I chose the coward's way out."

"And you told me Kerrigan felt the same way when she had been abandoned," Mal countered. "You said she's suffering from the guilt because she feels countless lives could have been spared if she had just shot herself at New Gettysburg, instead of letting herself get infested."

"Fear does crazy things to people, you know that. The Dominion can say all it wants about their ghost operatives being completely fearless, but that's not the case. There's no such thing as a person without fear, and Sarah was no exception to that. Don't forget, by the time she had been taken by the Zerg she was already a trained Confederate ghost agent. I was only a scared little girl then, and if it could affect her, then obviously it could do the same to me."

"That doesn't really mean you were given a choice in it all. If you gained back all your memories, then you would also know that had the Zerg not invaded Tarsonis, the Confederacy would have forced you into the Ghost Program anyway. You could have either gone there willingly or they could have dragged you there kicking and screaming. The program director, Ilsa Killiany, made it clear that more ghost operatives were necessary. They were the best line of defense against both the Zerg and the Sons of Korhal, and the Confederacy was running very low of them. With your high psionic ability, you would have been the ideal candidate. There was no way they would have let you walk away from it had you refused."

Mal paused for a moment, before continuing, "Given that, my gut feeling is that the case would have been exactly the same with the Dominion. Remember, Kerrigan was the Confederacy's deadliest ghost. With her gone, the next person on the list would have been you. You certainly earned your reputation as the Dominion's best ghost operative, one who never fails at her missions. Under that logic, had you not joined with the Dominion Ghost Program, they probably would have forced you to anyway because you would have been the only one who could probably go up against the Queen of Blades and survive."

"Well Mengsk now has that coming back to him," Nova said. "Sarah and I are both part of the Raiders now, and like herself, I too have an obligation to make up for what I've done in the past, and Jim's people is the best place for me to do just that."

"You've only known the guy for a couple of weeks, though. True there's posters of him being the people's hero, but it's still a matter of perspective."

Nova thought about this for only a second. "Maybe so, but Jim's far more understanding and knowing that I ever thought possible. Hell, more times than not between him and me, I seriously wondered just _who_ the psychic is. I could go probing his head for days without getting anywhere and not understand what he's gone through, whereas he was able to understand everything about me in just a few minutes."

Mal shrugged. "So the guy's gone through different events than you have during your time with the Dominion."

She chuckled slightly at that. "That's an understatement, Mal. Still, the times I fought with him, I could see his principles in wanting people to live free and everything. He clearly didn't like the constant internal conflicts and killings within the terran factions."

"And what about yourself? You said you raided New Folsom. How did you feel when you had to deal with the Dominion security forces there?"

Nova hesitated for a moment, before answering, "I guess a part of me felt bad for having to kill so many of them. Most of them may be murdering psychopaths, but they're still human beings."

Mal patted her on the shoulder. "Then that's clear proof that your time with the Raiders has given your life back, Nova."

She looked confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Before the death of your family, you were one of the most compassionate people I've known. I can see you have a lot of that right now."

"But I'm still a ghost operative, just one who doesn't serve the Dominion anymore."

"It's your actions that do the speaking," Mal explained. "You're a soldier. Soldiers are fighters, it's what they know. The moment you stop feeling regret for pulling the trigger, that's when you lose your humanity. There's a reason the guilt is there, you know. It tells the difference between duty-bound soldiers and cold blooded murderers. During your time with the Raiders you've raised your weapon plenty of times, and I bet some of Raynor's people have killed more than enough to last a lifetime. It's when you start to _enjoy_ it that's when you've lost. From what you've told me, everything Raynor has done has all been in the name of freedom and justice, none of it was for his personal gain."

"It's true," Nova said. "It'd be so much easier of the Dominion military would just step aside and let us take the fight to Mengsk."

"Then there you go. Now you're a true freedom fighter, and I'm proud of you."

Nova melted slightly under Mal's warm gaze, before suddenly realizing now was the time to ask. "Then come with me, Mal. Come with me to the Raiders, leave the Dominion behind. I know you disliked Mengsk for a long time, now you have a chance to fight and topple him once and for all. We could always use another hand."

Mal smiled at her. "I knew you'd ask that, Nova. I guess I'm just a little unsure on what Raynor is really like, that's all. There's plenty of rumors about him being the people's hero and everything, but I've never seen the guy face to face before."

"He'd welcome you," she assured him. "Look, you don't have to make a decision right now. Once I contact Jim, we can meet him together. You can decide for yourself then."

Mal nodded. "The radio is in one of the back rooms, you can contact him there. Let's just hope the Zerg didn't get him."

Without another word Nova got up and headed down the hallway. As she walked on, she smiled to herself. She would persuade him to join with the Raiders, where Mal would finally be treated as a person instead of just a pawn like Mengsk had treated him. And with Kelerchian back in her life, she couldn't be any happier.


	67. Chapter 67

**Author's Note: Back in chapter 35, I was asked if I'd introduce Heart of the Swarm units, as they had been first revealed back in Blizzcon 2011. I had said that I'd find a way to make them work in my fic, but it would be a while before I get around to mentioning them.**

**This chapter marks the beginning of when Heart of the Swarm units make their debut, although it'll still come very slowly. It probably won't be until the _really_ major battles before you see a lot of them all appearing at once.  
**

**Anyways, for those of you who had wondered why I chose to develop Nova's character, it was more than just because she definitely had a role to play in Heart of the Swarm. I always felt she should have her own identity and voice throughout the fic, as well as people she should come to care about, hence the reason why I introduced Mal Kelerchian as well.  
**

**This fic isn't going to put complete emphasis on her, though. This is still Raynor and Kerrigan's story, and they are still the main characters. If you really want to see Nova as a main character, I recommend you go take a look at the "Ghost Warrior" fic by "deathwing17". His portrayal of Nova is very well done, though his is at a different timeline. In his fic, Nova was still only a ghost trainee, whereas in mine she is already a fully trained ghost operative, so there are some minor differences.  
**

* * *

Chapter 67

**Ruins of the Citadel of the Executor, Aiur**

Hundreds of Furinax Tribe Protoss were working hard in their efforts of rebuilding and restoration. With few Zerg legions left on Aiur, the Protoss craftsmen, artisans, builders, weaponsmiths, and technologists were finally given the opportunity to put down their weapons and perform their original duties. The remaining Zerg on Aiur could be left to the Templars to hunt down, and the Protoss fleets were monitoring their every movement, searching every possible corner they could see for possible Zerg hideouts. Reports were continuously pouring in of their success, though despite the fact that they knew the battle had been lost, the remaining Zerg continued to offer heavy resistance and there were still plenty of Protoss casualties.

For Vartanil, it pained him greatly to hear that more of his brethren were still being killed despite the fact that Aiur was practically in Protoss hands once more. His Furinax brethren shared this pain, as well as the frustration of the sheer tenacity of the Zerg, still unwilling to yield despite the fact that the end was clearly in sight. Most of them lashed out at the former Queen of Blades for this, blaming her for having evolved the Zerg in such a manner.

Of course, none of them fought alongside her as the former Tal'darim had, so Vartanil felt that they had little room to judge. However, he also noticed that a few of the Furinax Protoss began to distance themselves from him. Clearly they felt that such proximity to the Queen of Blades had corrupted his mind and judgment.

Others proved to be no better. Vartanil was particularly irritated by the constant flow of questions from Furinax Protoss regarding Kerrigan. Although most had stated that they only wanted to have a greater understanding of what she was like if James Raynor was correct and she was no longer the Queen of Blades anymore, the former Tal'darim knew better. With very few Protoss willing to forgive her for what she had done in the past, it was obvious that his fellow Furinax Tribe Protoss were questioning him because they wanted to understand her skills in combat, and what vulnerabilities she possessed.

As for himself, he had promised Kerrigan that he would make his appeals and recommendations to the Hierarchy for what she had done for them here. It was his hope that Artanis would be understanding, having fought alongside James Raynor in the past. Mohandar would be more difficult, but he had been present at the Alys'aril Nexus on Ehlna, where the terran Rosemary Dahl had assisted them against the Zerg and the Dark Archon Ulrezaj, saving the life of the Protoss Preserver Zamara.

In a similar fashion, this could be used to persuade Urun as well, as both he and Mohandar had agreed to monitor Kerrigan's actions on Aiur to determine where her loyalties now lie. His own leader, Tabrenus, along with the Shelak leader Zekrath, would be much easier to convince. The latter continued to show great interest and pride in the Xel'Naga, and Kerrigan's actions on Aiur may shed further light on the prophecy at hand.

With the opinions of five Hierarchy members, Vartanil hoped that this would be enough to overrule Nahaan, who more than likely would have executed the former Queen of Blades on the spot had the decision been left to him. He was clearly no better than the judicator Aldaris, who had his pride blind him from his reason as Aiur was overrun and infested by the Zerg.

For the time being, Vartanil focused on his current task at hand. Like many in the Furinax Tribe, he was an architect prior to the Zerg invasion of Aiur, crafting objects of beauty for the Khalai Protoss. Some forged Protoss armor for the Zealots and exoskeletons for the Dragoons, others built the infrastructure of Protoss cities, monuments, fleet vessels, and weapons for the massive Protoss fleets.

He was a completely different architect. His role had been in the carving of the light and dark wood of the shuwark tree on Aiur, where he would polish it until it was smooth to the touch, all for the sculpting of native beast statues to further decorate the mighty golden Protoss buildings. After his homeworld had been overrun by the Zerg, he continued to utilize his carving skills, this time in the form of spears, bows, arrows, and any other weapon that could be used to fight off the vile creatures. Though he eventually took up arms with the Shel'na Kryhas, he knew he wouldn't be a true warrior.

In the aftermath of what had transpired on Ehlna, the former Tal'darim decided that it was time to take on a different approach. As he settled on Shakuras, he saw that many Furinax Protoss had settled down in the refugee camps and resumed their original work as they had on Aiur. It was as if most of them had simply forgotten the devastation the Zerg had wrought on their homeworld, and he would have none of it. Vartanil had requested to be trained in the warrior arts by Protoss Templars, and they granted his request. Although he was still a long way from being a seasoned Protoss warrior, he had gained enough skills to effectively combat the Zerg, and this had proven vital in his role in reclaiming Aiur with the Daelaam Protoss.

Yet regardless of skill, the overwhelming numbers of the Zerg remained a serious threat, and even the most seasoned Protoss had little success against the Queen of Blades. Vartanil understood that if Kerrigan regained her power she could immediately become a threat to the Protoss people once more, and thus constant monitoring was necessary should that occur. The Ara Tribe Protoss continuously relied on this possibility to argue that she had to be executed now, regardless of the prophecy, for only her death would permanently remove the threat she could still pose to them.

This was something that had set Vartanil apart from most of his Protoss brethren, as they were unwilling and uninterested in seeing the events from Kerrigan's perspective. To him, the former Queen of Blades was now a shattered and broken woman. She had no desire for any more slaughter, yet the series of events continued to turn her away from that. Nor did she believe in any positive outcome once all of the ordeals pass. The way he saw it, Kerrigan was fighting to make amends to everyone she had hurt during her time with the Zerg, yet fighting on without hope due to the inability of the Protoss to forgive her for what had transpired in the past. It was certainly not a welcoming prospect.

To compound matters, he was unsure just what he could accomplish once he presented his case to the Hierarchy. He was less than 100 years old, and considered to be extremely young among all Protoss. Only Artanis shared his youth, and even the Hierarch himself was about 3 times his age. Thus he hoped that his leader Tabrenus could support his claims, but even that had its limitations. For the Furinax Protoss to participate in political affairs was completely unheard of during the golden days of Aiur. The Conclave would never allow such a thing. Even now, while the opinions of the Furinax Tribe are to be factored in and considered, the Protoss worker tribe continued to play a minor role in such affairs as there was still a long period of adjustment necessary into the new ruling body. Given that, with the Xel'Naga prophecy of such a scale and capable of affecting everything in the universe, the political inexperience of his tribe would clearly count against them and whatever opinions voiced would more than likely be considered secondary compared to the other tribes.

With barely a year's worth of experience with the new ruling body, Vartanil could only hope that the Hierarchy would be far more considerate compared to the Conclave. Nahaan would obviously oppose him, but he would consider it a victory if he was able to convince the others and reconsider their views on Kerrigan.

The young Protoss turned his head back to the task of rebuilding. He and the other Furinax Protoss were standing in the ruins of what was once the Citadel of the Executor, the floating headquarters of the Templar Caste that hovered over the capital city of Antioch. It was among the areas that remained in Protoss hands after the destruction of the Overmind, but was later destroyed by the Zerg after the Khalai Protoss had escaped to Shakuras.

The Citadel itself was connected to the Road of Remembrance, which stretched from Antioch to the ruins of a Xel'Naga temple. Like much of Aiur, the sacred path of ascension was also littered with the scars of war, and Vartanil and the Furinax Protoss have been ordered to begin its restoration. Long before the arrival of the Zerg, the Road of Remembrance was used as a ritual for the honored dead. Upon lying on a platform for one day, the honored Protoss dead would then be transported to the Xel'Naga temple.

Now, with most of the Zerg finally expelled from Aiur, the rituals would begin once more. Millions of Khalai and Nerazim Protoss had given their lives to see their homeworld reclaimed, and each and every one of them would travel down the Road of Remembrance, their services to Aiur forever honored. The Xel'Naga temple itself would not only be restored, but also expanded so that it would be able to house the bodies of the dead, every one of them firmly believing in their cause.

* * *

**Dead Man's Rock**

Mira could feel the tension from the individual mercenary leaders as their faces appeared on the video screen. They certainly had reason to. Prior to the Zerg assault on Dead Man's Rock a year ago, a conference with every mercenary leader on the planet was completely unheard of. Even now, such meetings were considered extremely rare, and only the topic of the Zerg was discussed.

This was clearly not the case here, and Mira wondered if any of them would listen to reason. With regards to dealing with the Zerg, there was little difficulty in getting the mercs to see reason. The Zerg were all consuming, and if an invasion took place, they would infest the whole planet and leave no one alive and standing in the end. The Dominion, however, was a completely different matter. There were certainly those who believed that the Dominion leaders would listen to reason. Others would be intimidated by their modern military might and thus would believe it would be better to simply strike a bargain with them. There were those who wanted to have nothing to do with the Dominion, and would do just about anything to get their ships to leave Dead Man's Rock, regardless of what price has to be paid.

Uniting all of them together to go up against the Dominion was going to be a daunting task, and Mira knew it. Even admitting that she had the modern technologies of Raynor's Raiders to back her up may not be enough to sway them. Most already knew that she was married to Raynor's second in command, but that meant little to them. They were all aware that Matthew wanted to have little to do with her, and therefore it seemed unlikely that the Raiders would come to her aid. Even in the unlikely case that they do, all of them knew that the Raiders would never help her for free, and many would be very uncomfortable about the price that would have to be paid for such an alliance, even if it's only a temporary one.

"I'm glad to see you all decided to accept my invitation," she began. "I know such a gathering is rare, but we do face an emergency situation right now."

"We all heard the Dominion announcement, lady," one of the mercs stated. "In less than 48 hours from now, if we don't tell them where you are, they'll turn Deadman's Port and Paradise into radioactive craters."

"I'm surprised no one has given you up yet, Mira," another said, disgusted. "When the Dominion comes here in force, it's not exactly a smart idea to mess with them."

"Maybe not, but they're too deceitful," the female mercenary leader replied. "I called this meeting so that we can temporarily put aside our differences and work together against them."

One of the faces on the screen roared in funeral laughter. "You're completely insane or you think we are, Mira. Now let's be honest: what exactly do you hope to achieve by doing this?"

"It's called sending a message," she answered. "We're going to show the Dominion that they can't just come here, push us around, and expect us to bow before them and give them whatever they want simply because they've got guns pointing in our faces."

"Tough talk, but your words are hollow. You know as well as we do that our equipment is far too outdated compared to the Dominion's. Dead Man's Rock is a dumping ground, not a modern industrial planet. Whatever new equipment we can obtain in years, the Dominion can do the same in a matter of days, if not sooner."

"He's right," another merc perked up. "Don't forget, other than Orlan, your mercenary force is the strongest on the planet. We have heard the news that James Raynor had come to the planet a while back, where you and his Raiders defeated Orlan. Now his mercenary force has joined with yours, making yours the strongest on Dead Man's Rock. If yours isn't enough to deal with the Dominion presence, what makes you think ours can do any better? We'd all be slaughtered to a man long before we can make even the slightest headway against them!"

"Not if we have the proper backup," Mira assured him. "My husband Matthew Horner is currently on the planet, and he has brought with him a battle group of Raynor's Raiders. Unlike us, they have better weapons and technology, most of which are every bit as advanced as those of the Dominion."

"And why the hell would your husband help you?" Another face on the screen snorted. "You and him got married simply because of some card gambling game. If he had known the prize was your hand in marriage, he would never have even joined. You can argue all you want about how the marriage is official, but that doesn't mean Horner will accept such a thing."

"That's because I had assisted him as well. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say I too had a hand in the Korhal broadcasts that threw the Dominion into disarray."

"Then that gives the Dominion even more reason to have your head on a platter!"

"Which is all the more reason I'm calling for unity here," Mira answered. "We need to all work together to deal with the Dominion troops on the planet, at least for now."

"For what purpose? The Dominion is here for you, not us. If we assist you, we'd be added to the targets list as well."

Mira rolled her eyes. "Then you're admitting your cowardice, too scared to take them on."

"Better to be a coward than a dead man, Mira. Dead Man's Rock is a lawless world. The Dominion never really cares what happens here, so whatever you did must have _really_ pissed them off. Now they're all here for revenge, which you know you can't defeat them yourself, so you're calling on us just so you can save your own skin."

"And what would you people have done if you were me?"

"Personally, I never would have helped the Raiders in the first place," a mercenary leader said. "We've all known for years about them rebellion against the Dominion. Anyone found to be helping them would be punished by the Dominion, like being shot on the spot. And according to you, your assistance was responsible for all the rioting that happened after the Korhal broadcasts, so I'd say it makes perfect sense for the Dominion to make an exception and come to Dead Man's Rock for you."

"You're acting like Dead Man's Rock would remain free from Dominion authority indefinitely," Mira shot back. "What evidence do you have to prove that? What if someday the Dominion came and decided to turn this world into an authoritative planet? What would you guys do then?"

"That's self explanatory, lady. We'd simply get off this place and find ourselves another merc haven."

"Then you have a very narrow-minded view of the Dominion. If you ever bothered to pay attention, it's that they aren't going to stop until just about every planet, moon, and maybe every asteroid in this entire sector is under their rule. You guys can run all you want, but sooner or later, if you want your independence, then you'd have to fight them."

"Not necessarily," one of the leaders spoke out. "We could simply sit back and wait for the factions like the Kel-Morian Combine or the Umojan Protectorate to deal with the Dominion instead."

"Can you honestly count on that?" Mira asked. "What if they don't? Or what if the Dominion manages to defeat them?"

"There's still Raynor and his Raiders. They've been rebelling against the Dominion for years, everyone knows that. We could just let them do the dirty work for us."

"Now you're just being plain stupid," Mira snorted. "All you're thinking about is strategy, not logistics. You honestly think a revolution against the Dominion can be done without cost? Every operation that we've all done, no matter how small, all requires resources at our disposal to pull it off. You really think the Raiders are an exception to all this?"

"What are you getting at?"

"During Raynor's previous visit here when I helped him defeat Orlan, he made it clear to me that the payment to buy my loyalty wasn't exactly cheap. His Raiders had been squeezed of resources in the past few years, and it made their revolution quite difficult. Thus the price I had given him was considered to be a very steep one."

The mercenary leader shook his head in disgust. "You're not going to let this go, are you? You're just going to keep pestering us until we agree to help you fight the Dominion forces here."

"I'm asking all of you to take your forces and come into proximity of the battle once the bullets start flying," Mira corrected him. "Whether you choose to join in or not is irrelevant. However, I'd like to make one point very clear. If the Dominion forces win, then Dead Man's Rock will lose its most powerful military defense force. Once that happens, what's to prevent the Dominion from turning back on their word and using the nuclear weapons on Deadman's Port and Paradise anyway?"

As she saw that most of the mercenary leaders were murmuring amongst themselves, Mira knew that she had made her point. "If nothing else, I suggest you think about that. If my forces are defeated, yours would crumble with ease before the Dominion military. You'll be at the mercy of the Dominion, and so will all of Dead Man's Rock. You know as well as I do that there is no guarantee that they would honor their claims, especially given the way in which how they see this world. If they choose not to, well let's just say those cities are going to be very quiet neighborhoods for a while."

Without another word the female mercenary turned off the communicator. She hoped that those last statements would finally get the other mercenaries to consider her proposal.

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Jim breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Nova's face appear on the portable communicator screen. "I'm glad to see you're all right, Nova. Last thing I needed was a report from the fly boys saying that you got eaten by the Zerg."

"I'm not that easy to kill, Jim," she replied.

"I know that, but you're only one person, and the Zerg are plenty."

"I had help," she admitted, as she stepped aside and another man's face appeared on the display screen. "Jim, I want you to meet Mal Kelerchian. He was the one who saved me when the Zerg had me trapped."

The commander looked at the man for a few moments. "Ah yes, I remember now. He was the one who helped you into the Ghost Program, and you have saved his life a few years back from falling rubble on Tarsonis."

"Raynor, how do you know all that? Those memories belong to Nova," Mal said, not pleased. "It's not your business to probe into all that."

"I was there with her when the Protoss helped her recover the memories of her past life," he explained. "Say what you will about privacy and secrets, but there's also something called breaking points. We all have them, and from what I had seen, there were things that were simply not meant to be endured alone."

The wrangler let out a breath of air, not pleased, but unable to dispute it either. "Nova believes that I could have a better purpose by joining with you and the Raiders. Right now, I'm just not sure. I may not be Mengsk's fan, but your actions in causing entire Dominion worlds to riot after the Korhal broadcasts weren't exactly favorable either."

"It's regrettable," Raynor admitted. "But it was the only way to send the message through. With the entire media under his control, nothing anyone says there would make a difference. Until he starts losing control of the people's trust, this rebellion is the only way to go."

Kelerchian sighed. "Nova wanted me to come and stay with your Raiders for a while, see things from your perspective."

"If nothing else my boys would keep you safe, Mr. Kelerchian. The Zerg will be hunting both of you."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Zerg have a psionic ability that can sense psionics," Jim explained. "They're attuned to anyone with psychic emanations. The higher your psionic signature, the more likely they can sense you. Both you and Nova are essentially becoming a magnet for them. Sooner or later they'll locate you, and there's no way you can hide your signatures from them forever. Your best chance is come to me and my boys, and we'll all fight the Zerg together."

"He's right, Mal," Nova said quietly. "If nothing else, at least consider that. There's too much Zerg in the city right now, we can't fight them all alone."

The wrangler's shoulders sagged a little, but Jim saw in his eyes that he conceded. "All right, Raynor. I personally don't like to leave my place, but then again since arriving on Tarsonis there's never been a Zerg incursion of this scale into the city. I still have my doubts, but Nova trusts your judgment, and I trust her."

The rebel commander nodded. "I'll transmit the coordinates that me and my boys will be heading to. You two can meet us there."

He turned off the communicator, before turning to one of the officers walking alongside him. "What's our status right now?"

"Given that we were left in relative peace throughout the night, I'd say that was a relief," came the reply. "That rest was badly needed, and now most of the troops are ready for battle again."

He nodded in understanding. The night's rest had done much to help regain his troops' strength. The ammunition factors were not much of a problem, as Hercules ships had sent down more during the night. Enough sentries had the energy to remain awake and be on guard, and the Zerg had left them in relative peace and quiet.

Now, all of them were tracking the Dominion troops in the city. Last night, their positions weren't too far from the Raiders, having holed themselves up in a dilapidated hotel. However by morning, reports from Banshees had indicated that the hotel had been emptied, and the Dominion troops were gone. There was no indication that they had left the city, however, and thus Jim gave orders to locate them immediately. If the Dominion forces went into hiding, then the Zerg would focus only on his troops, and that would be a disaster.

In retrospect, it may not be too far from what the Dominion's strategy would be. Raynor knew that the Dominion troops were fully aware their military strength wouldn't be enough to defeat the Zerg here, so it would be better to let someone else deal with the problem instead, namely him. And while he was occupied with the constant Zerg attacks, the Dominion troops could proceed with their mission on Tarsonis with little risk of interference.

He would have none of it, and this was exactly the reason why he and his troops were now heading for the central train station in the ruins of downtown Tarsonis City. Some of Warfield's officers indicated that despite the Zerg devastation caused on the planet, the Dominion did go some ways in their restorations. Among the most vital places to restore were the rail networks, both inside and outside Tarsonis's major cities. This would then allow Dominion troops to reach from one place to another relatively quickly, and thus would speed up whatever salvage operations they conduct on this world.

On the other hand, Jim knew that if he and his boys reached the station first, they would be able to spot the Dominion troops on the ground almost just as effectively as the Wraiths, Vikings, and Banshees could from the air. It may also provide them with a faster means of escape from the Zerg should their attacks become too much for his troops to handle, as well as denying the Dominion troops the opportunity of a quick way out should they find themselves in a similar position.

"Commander, how far are we away from the station?" a marine asked.

"About 10 to 15 miles away from the main transit hub," Jim answered. "Let's pick up the pace, people. If the Dominion boys are there already, then we've got even less time than we think. We'd have to fight them and the Zerg, as well as deny them any chance of a quick escape."

* * *

**Dominion Weapons Test Lab, Korhal**

Dr. Evans steeled himself as the Dominion emperor's face appeared on screen. "Emperor, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"Your new technologies are going to be incorporated into the Dominion armed forces after all, doctor," Mengsk replied candidly. "They may not be exactly what I am looking for, but right now time is not exactly on my side anymore. Even I am forced to improvise."

Evans was not too pleased with this answer, nor had he been fully satisfied ever since the weapons development project got off the ground. Even as one of the head figures of the Dominion special weapons projects divisions, it had certainly taken a lot of effort out of him to persuade the emperor to proceed with the development of newer and specialized weapons for the Dominion.

Mengsk had convinced himself that with the Zerg having been silent for years, there was still plenty of time to build up the Dominion fleet. Resources were used elsewhere to rebuild the Dominion empire, and to hunt down rebel terrorist groups like Jim Raynor. Prior to the Zerg invasion, his requests to proceed forward with weapons development were rarely listened to. During the occasional times that they were, the emperor had only devoted a small fraction of resources to it. Clearly Mengsk believed that the existing weapons in the arsenal would do just fine against the Dominion's enemies.

While this belief may have been vindicated, the fact remained that the Dominion Armada was still too small in size to deal with a full scale Zerg invasion. Thus when the vile creatures began their attack on the Dominion worlds, everyone was caught completely off guard. Evans understood the emperor's actions to pull back the fleet and defend the core worlds, leaving the fringe worlds to fend for themselves. It was a very simple military concept that most people understood: the need to sacrifice a few in order to achieve success.

However as the Zerg invasion continued and world after world became infested by the Zerg, Evans felt that this concept was being pushed to its limits. Although he perfectly understood that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few, to send entire populations to their deaths to protect the core worlds just seemed too much.

He was far from the only one. As the UNN reports flooded onto the media channels of how the Zerg had overrun the fringe worlds and the death toll was in the hundreds of millions, many of his fellow research staff began to feel that the emperor was not doing his duty to better protect his people. The way that the Dominion core worlds turned away refugee ships only added reinforced their belief in Mengsk's lack of responsibility.

And even as the Zerg invasion continued, the amount of Dominion resources poured into his special weapons project had only increased slightly. It seemed that the emperor continued to believe that the Zerg successes so far were nothing but a series of minor setbacks. Only when the Dominion public began to riot in the aftermath of the Korhal broadcasts did Evans finally receive greater amounts of resources. To him, however, this wasn't really a matter of Mengsk having changed his mind, but rather as a sign of securing loyalty. Even the emperor wasn't so foolish as to believe that the public would turn a blind eye to the broadcasts, and thus it was vital to keep as many people on his side as possible.

Although Evans was still struggling to determine if he was doing the right thing in the greater picture, he also knew that for the time being, the main efforts had to be focused on the immediate threats. Despite Prince Valerian's announcement of the success of the Char invasion and the defeat of the Queen of Blades, he and his research team had been repeatedly told that the war with the Zerg was still far from over. This was a complete shift in the message as the Zerg invasion began, where Mengsk announced on UNN that with General Warfield in command of the Dominion fleet, the Zerg would be beaten back and crushed in no time at all.

For Evans himself, while he disagreed with quite a few things with the emperor, he concurred with him about the threat of the Zerg. As such, despite the continued negative media broadcasts about Mengsk and the Dominion military, he and his research team continued their efforts to build and perfect the Dominion special weapons.

Unfortunately, they were not yet at the stage that he had hoped for, and he had no choice but to explain that to the emperor.

Mengsk frowned. "What do you mean not all of them are ready yet?"

"Sir, you told me earlier that the special weapons my team are developing are considered secondary compared to what Dr. Saunders's team were doing at New Folsom," Evans explained. "You may not have given me the details, but you said it yourself that it involved something regarding the S.E.T.H. Warbots or something like that."

The Dominion emperor shook his head. "Raynor and his rag tag rebels raided the New Folsom complex. By the time Dominion forces had arrived, they found him terrorists had done a number to the place. All of the surviving security forces were in prison cells, while all the prisoners were freed. The neosteel production centers, processing facilities, and the munitions factories have all been nuked, and there's virtually nothing left to salvage. The underground factory where Saunders's special weapons were being built had also been destroyed. And finally, it's been confirmed that Raynor used explosives and made the neosteel mines collapse on themselves. It'll be months before we can even resume the mining for neosteel, let alone its production. In short, the whole New Folsom industrial complex is in complete ruins, and any progress made by Saunders and his team has now been lost."

"So you're shifting the priority to my team," Evans stated.

"I had not counted on Raynor to turn his rebellion back to the Dominion so soon," Mengsk admitted. "The place was meant to channel entire invading armies into killing zones, but as his so-called Raiders had access to ghost operatives, they were able to find a way around that. The loss of the S.E.T.H. Warbots and their schematics is by no means a fatal blow, and neither is the loss of Saunders and his research team. However, it does set back new Dominion weaponry development for at least a few years. With the Zerg threat still present, there is simply no time for these setbacks. Every effort must be made to compensate for what had happened."

"My teams will double our efforts in the weapons developing," the doctor promised.

"What exactly is wrong with them anyway?"

"The Shredder automaton is very dangerous to the Zerg," Evans explained. "My team had taken the Zerg's burrowing ability and incorporated some extent of it into the automation. This makes the Shredder able to partially plant itself into the ground, and pull itself back out and move to a different location if there are no enemy units nearby. Unfortunately, studies have indicated that the Zerg have a greater resistance to radiation than humans, so we had to put in vast amounts of radiation for it to generate to deal with the Zerg. The problem is that this much radiation would be lethal to Dominion units in the Shredder's vicinity, and we cannot beat the Zerg in a battle of numbers. Because of that, my team is still hard at work in programming friendly proximity into the Shredders, so that they don't end up killing our own forces if they're within range of the radiation."

Mengsk did not look pleased, but it seemed like he accepted this, at least for now. "What about the Warhound walkers? With the loss of the S.E.T.H. Warbots, these will have to be used to compensate for the weaknesses in the Thors."

"Their cannons have proven to be especially capable against ground targets," Evans agreed. "Goliaths, Siege Tanks, and Diamondbacks could take very little pounding from them. Only the Thors can, but the Warhound's agility compensates for that. Unfortunately, these cannons don't seem to respond very well when loaded with high explosive rounds, so the Warhounds won't be very effective against enemy infantry."

"I thought you said the Battle Hellion would compensate for that," Mengsk pointed out.

"That's true, and it's the only one that is fully battle ready right now. My team added additional neosteel plates onto the Hellion scouting car and fitted it with a more advanced infernal flamethrower. The transformation process is similar to that of a Viking, where the Battle Hellion would become bipedal. In this form, its armor plating will allow it to withstand greater punishment on the battlefield, and its flamethrower can incinerate all but the most heavily armored targets nearby. The schematics for them have already been uploaded to the Dominion factories, and many of them have already churned out hundreds of Battle Hellions."

"Send the schematics to more factories," the emperor ordered. "I want production stepped up on them. In the meantime, I'll be taking a group of the new Hellions for their first test trials."

"Where will that be?" Evans asked.

"The lawless mercenary world of Dead Man's Rock," Mengsk answered. "The locals have proven to be quite uncooperative, and they need to be taught a valuable lesson about who's in charge around here. These Battle Hellions will be the perfect candidates to do just that, and the people there will tremble in fear at the might of the Dominion once we reduce a few of their towns to cinders."


	68. Chapter 68

**Author's Note: With a new year comes a new chapter. I looked over the past ones and saw that I spent a lot of time talking about the situation on Aiur without even the slightest mention of Shakuras, which wouldn't make much sense. It'd be better to put _some_ scenes on Shakuras than nothing at all.**

**To Blackhole1, in your last review you were again getting ahead of yourself. You had asked if Mengsk was finally starting to the get the picture that his grip on the public was fading. Now be honest: do you really think Mengsk would have focused only on the military and completely ignore the situation with the public? This chapter will do a little foreshadowing of just that.  
**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 68

**Shakuras**

Zekrath looked out at the indigo landscape of the Dark Templar homeworld of Shakuras as his Phoenix interceptor craft flew over its open plains. Sunrises were relatively rare on this world, a complete contrast to the golden days of Aiur, but Shakuras had other ways to compensate for it and become every bit as beautiful as Aiur before its fall to the Zerg swarm.

Like Aiur, Shakuras had its beaches and magnificent cliffs, sparkling waterfalls and indigo lagoons. The massive trees and fields of flowers, many of them giving off a rainbow color, and most of which the Shelak leader found to be every more beautiful than those of Aiur. The seas themselves were equally beautiful, constantly shifting and filled with creatures swimming beneath the surface.

So many things glowed at night, from the Dark Templar cities to the artificial lights from nature itself. It had taken Zekrath a short matter of time in the aftermath of the Brood War to understand the reason the Nerazim had settled here. Granted it was also here that the ancient Xel'Naga temple was situated, but something told him that this world would have been an ideal choice for the Dark Templar even without the presence of the Xel'Naga.

Unfortunately for him, taking in the beauty of this world was not the reason why he was here. He had other matters to tend to. With the Zerg resistance on Aiur broken, there was no longer a need for every Protoss warrior to be present there, and the same was true of the Hierarchy. Unlike Artanis, Urun, and Mohandar, he did not possess the warrior skills necessary for fighting. It was thus left to the Dark Templar brethren and the Khalai Templars to clear the remaining Zerg from Aiur. Tabrenus was already gathering all the Furinax Protoss he could find, along with any other Protoss survivors on Aiur. Every Protoss of the working class would soon be needed in the great task of rebuilding Aiur and restoring the golden Protoss civilization there.

The message of Protoss victory on Aiur had already been passed to Shakuras, and there was enthusiasm and joy across the whole world, especially for the Khalai Protoss. After four years of living as refugees on Shakuras, they could finally return to Aiur again.

Of course, not all of them reacted like this. There were those who had accepted the Dark Templar homeworld as their new home, though in many cases this only seemed to anger the Nerazim tribes further. There were simply too few Khalai Protoss that were willing to make any attempts whatsoever to comprehend the Dark Templar, and the Nerazim tribes continued to harbor the concern that another Protoss civil war could break out due to the inability of the Khalai and Dark Templar people to unite together.

Other Khalai Protoss that did not want to return to Aiur shared Urun's concerns, despite the fact that James Raynor's victory on Char has been known to them. There was no concrete evidence to show that Kerrigan was no longer the Queen of Blades anymore. If she was still the vile Zerg creature, then she would still be able to control the Zerg swarm. If that was the case, then a victory on Aiur would mean absolutely nothing.

It was for this reason that ever since news of the Zerg invasion began, the Shakuras Templar Proving Grounds had increased its activity immeasurably. This was the location where Protoss warriors of the Templar Caste did battle and sparring in order to become Zealots. The Dark Templar tribes take part in similar trials, allowing them to become fierce warriors on the battlefield. Putting aside their differences was extremely difficult, but at least they all reached a consensus in dealing with the Queen of Blades.

As he flew over the ancient capital city of Talematros, it brought him a further reminder of what Kerrigan had done to the Protoss people. The record chambers there were filled with the names of all the Protoss that had perished in fighting the Queen of Blades, and the templar towers were still full of activity of Protoss preparing themselves of the trials yet to come.

Talematros itself was constantly bathed in the twilight, typical for the Dark Templar, and the unusual architectural designs were becoming more and more familiar to the Khalai Protoss with every passing day. It amazed Zekrath in how quickly the city had been rebuilt in the aftermath of the Brood War. It was here that Kerrigan had used the Zerg to destroy the Pylon clusters that supplied power to the city, causing its power grid to overload and reduce most of the city to rubble. In the resulting confusion, she had taken the Dark Templar Matriarch Raszagal and forced Zeratul to destroy the second Overmind, thus securing her position as Zerg ruler.

Now, with all of her powers stripped, Zekrath knew that Kerrigan was very frightened amongst the Protoss, fully convinced that at any moment, one of them would lose control over their hatred for the former Queen of Blades and have her killed. The Shelak leader was not like them in that sense, however. He may have consented in that Kerrigan needed to be brought to justice for everything that she had done during her time with the Zerg, but having tended to matters regarding the Xel'Naga for so long, he showed greater curiosity in the comprehension of the prophecy and the interest the first Overmind had shown regarding Kerrigan.

It was his tribe's reputation that had made the Shelak Tribe the most acceptable Khalai Protoss to the Dark Templar people. Unlike their Khalai brethren, the Dark Templar never broke off from the Xel'Naga, and still worshipped them as their gods. Among the Nerazim, as individuals or in groups, the Dark Templar had constantly and continuously strived to seek out ancient artifacts and relics of the Xel'Naga. On Aiur, despite the fact that great efforts had been made to save the Protoss texts, history, documents, and written knowledge from the Zerg infestation, much had been lost when the Protoss homeworld was eventually overrun. Only a portion of it had been safely transported to Shakuras.

To Zekrath and the Shelak Tribe, that was a complete and utter catastrophe. The loss of so much history would take centuries, if not millennia, to recover, assuming it was even possible at all. The ancient scrolls, texts, relics, and artifacts from the Aeon of Strife may have been safe on the Protoss archive world of Zhakul, but all Protoss history was considered vital to the Firstborn. This included the history from the golden days of Aiur, not simply the Protoss civil war that resulted when the Xel'Naga had abandoned them.

Fortunately, the mass libraries on Shakuras had provided the Shelak leader with more than he could have ever imagined possible. Dark Templar researchers and scholars were numerous, and most had unearthed numerous valuable Xel'Naga artifacts. That came as no surprise to him, as such scholars were obsessed with finding more information about their creators. Some of the artifacts were completely unheard of by the Shelak Tribe, such as the successful excavations of tablet fragments, displaying the near indecipherable words inscribed by the hands of Xel'Naga poets. Others included obelisk fragments from ancient Xel'Naga stones, many of them still containing pictographs on them.

None of them were to be hoarded as treasures or mere personal possessions. Such souvenirs were only those of Aiur, to which the Nerazim remained loyal to despite their banishment. The Xel'Naga relics, on the other hand, were meant for research, and every relic uncovered held a portion of the key to the understanding that the Dark Templar people so desired. Despite the fact that they knew pieces of history that the Khalai Protoss had long since forgotten, the fact remained that they were still just fragments, and more Xel'Naga artifacts were required to complete the picture.

Of course, getting access to library's artifacts was a completely different story. The Dark Templar were pleased that Zekrath and his tribe continued to venerate the Xel'Naga instead of having broken off with them like the other Khalai tribes. However, they all voiced their disgust at which such actions had all been done just so that the Judicatory Assembly, and in particular the Conclave, could further enhance their powers through the Khala. Because of the past actions, most of the Nerazim tribes still did not show any willingness to give the Shelak Protoss access to such sacred knowledge and information.

Indeed, during the initial stages, this had gone off disastrously, and quite a few Shelak Protoss had been assassinated by the Dark Templar. They accused that the Khalai Protoss had never bothered to make any attempt to understand the Nerazim culture, society, and civilization, so the ancient Xel'Naga knowledge they now sought must be intended to suit their own purposes. Trying to convince them that their Khalai brethren had changed did not earn much progress either. While all of the Nerazim tribes were greatly saddened at the state Aiur had been reduced to, many also saw that this had driven the Khalai Protoss to desperation, and that their change in attitude was merely a mask for their true intentions. Of course, as the years went on, their attitudes had changed towards the Shelak people, though the reluctance to share ancient Xel'Naga knowledge with them still remained.

Among the areas where this was less of a problem was the massive Xel'Naga temple, which was now in sight of his Phoenix interceptor. It was from this great structure that the combined efforts of Khalai and Nerazim Protoss had driven the Zerg from Shakuras during the Brood War. While the twin crystals of Uraj and Khalis that allowed for proper channeling of the nexus energies that the Xel'Naga temple sat upon had been removed, the efforts to carve ones of similar power from the Khaydarin Crystals on Shakuras never ceased, as most Protoss were in agreement that eventually, the time may come where there will again be the need to harness the cosmic energies of the nexus. Should that time come again, everyone must be prepared for it, lest Shakuras suffer as Aiur had at the hands of the Zerg.

As his Phoenix interceptor landed and Zekrath exited from the ship, he was greeted by the acolytes of the Xel'Naga temple. It was among the things that greatly pleased the Shelak leader, and it showed the cooperative nature between his tribe and the Dark Templar people. Prior to the arrival of the Khalai refugees, the Xel'Naga temple guardians comprised completely of individual Dark Templar. In the aftermath of the Brood War, the situation had somewhat changed. Although some of the Dark Templar still chose to remain behind and look after the temple, Khalai Protoss became integrated into the fold of the guardians as well.

The Protoss of the Xel'Naga temple was the closest representation to the unity of the Khalai and Nerazim tribes. Protoss from the Auriga, Akilae, Furinax, Ara, and Shelak Tribes were all part of the guardians, though the vast majority still belonged to the Shelak tribe. Even to this day, Zekrath still found it somewhat difficult to believe that Ara Protoss would be part of all this as well, since the Conclave was almost entirely comprised of Ara members, and they had strictly banned the teachings of the Xel'Naga to all but the Shelak Protoss. For Ara Tribe members to became such guardians would be going against virtually everything they had stood for during the days of the Conclave.

On the other hand, the Akilae, Auriga, and Furinax Tribes were more easily swayed. In the case with the Akilae it was relatively simple, second only to the Shelak. Prior to becoming Hierarch, Artanis was once mighty Tassadar's student, and he continued to admire his mentor to this very day. As Tassadar saw the wisdom in combining the might of the Khalai and Nerazim to destroy the Overmind on Aiur, Artanis quickly saw the need for such unity, and some of the warriors of the Akilae soon saw that the best way to do that was to work together and cooperate with the Dark Templar at the Xel'Naga temple.

The Furinax Tribe was not as easy, having sided with the Conclave during Zerg invasion of Aiur to pass judgment on Tassadar. Nevertheless, as part of the Khalai Caste they were craftsmen, and there were those that believed that the sacred Khaydarin Crystals used by the Xel'Naga could be used as more than a mere power source for Protoss buildings, ships, and weaponry. Mohandar had confirmed this himself when he mentioned the holy Alys'aril Nexus on Ehlna, where the Nerazim used the Khaydarin Crystals as a form of memory storage, and the whole place was a massive library of knowledge taken from minds and memories of the Dark Templar.

To the Furinax Protoss, this was clear proof that they still had a long ways to go to better understand the purpose of the Khaydarin Crystals, and some were willing to learn more about it by tending to the crystals within the Xel'Naga temple on Shakuras. According to all of the guardians, the crystals in this temple "sing" to their souls, and it was a calming and comforting sense to them.

For the Auriga Tribe, many did not initially see the Xel'Naga temple as anything more than a weapon to be used against the Zerg. As part of the Templar Caste, they were charged with the Carriers and Arbiters of the Protoss Great Fleet. Unfortunately, the fall of Aiur was a painful reminder to the Auriga Protoss that their might alone was not enough to deal with the Zerg swarm. Thus despite the fact that the Great Fleet had been by now restored, many of the Auriga brethren quickly pointed out that as their strength did not succeed back then, it was likely that it wouldn't succeed now. It was for this reason that some of the Auriga Protoss had initially chosen to look after the Xel'Naga temple, hoping to find a way in which to harness its energies and incorporate them into Great Fleet.

Yet regardless of their reasons, none of them understood as the Shelak Tribe had. The Ara, Furinax, Akilae, and Auriga Tribes still made up of the three fundamental castes that Khas had created in the aftermath of the Aeon of Strife: Judicator, Khalai, and Templar. The Judicator Caste defined the laws and kept to the true path that they believed, the Khalai harnessed the science and technology, built the infrastructure, and forged objects of great beauty, and the Templar Caste protected the Protoss physical bodies.

However, deeper and beyond all this was the knowledge of the Xel'Naga, which had existed long before the Khala itself. This was something that the Shelak Tribe had kept alive, the history of understanding and protecting ancient Xel'Naga artifacts had preserved what it truly meant to be Protoss. The Conclave had somewhat understood this, but they had gotten the interpretation of the message backwards. The Khala could not teach the Protoss the ways in which the Xel'Naga functioned, it was the Xel'Naga knowledge that had the potential to teach the ways of the Khala.

It was for this reason that Zekrath knew he needed to visit the Xel'Naga temple on Shakuras once again. Every single scroll, text, document, artifact, relic, and structure that the Xel'Naga had left behind had been designed for a specific purpose. Some were in plain sight on planets already colonized by the Protoss, some were on worlds so distant that the Protoss do not even know of its existence. Some were radiating with power in its beauty and glory, others were dark and abandoned, and still more were buried by the sands of time and long since forgotten by even the eldest Protoss.

The temple on Shakuras would be no exception to all of this. Zekrath did not know how ancient the Xel'Naga shrines on Ulaan was, where Zeratul had discovered the prophecy in the first place, but none of the Dark Templar knew the exact age of Xel'Naga temple here either, since it had existed long before the Nerazim had set foot on Shakuras.

Under that logic, the Shelak leader hoped that by exploring the ancient texts and writings within the temple, they might be able to provide further clues about the prophecy. Currently, the only potential source of knowledge comes from the Zerg Overmind itself, and Zekrath knew that if an alternative source could be found, it would assist the Daelaam Protoss tremendously in their efforts to uncover the truth.

* * *

**Mal's Hideout, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Mal hit the button on the keypad, and the door to the makeshift garage opened up. With the Stinger jeep destroyed, the only vehicle he had left now was an old model pickup truck. It certainly wasn't much, and even less so on the battlefield, especially if he and Nova run into more Zerg patrols.

Unlike the Stinger, the truck had virtually no armor plating at all. Whatever places that it did have covered the most critical areas, and even then it was very little. It was meant only as an emergency transport vehicle to operate behind the frontlines, used as a very last resort to move troops to the front in the absence of other transports. Whatever protection it offered was only meant to withstand minor small arms fire, and this would render it ineffective against Roaches and Hydralisks. The fuel tanks below were unprotected, which made the truck very vulnerable to Lurker attacks.

The top plating on the truck was also very thin, and this meant it could not absorb many hits in the face of Mutalisk attacks. While it could easily outrun the Brood Lords, an unfortunate encounter with them would almost certainly mean instant death to anyone the truck carried.

Even the frontal plating was weak and could not withstand a beating. This meant that unlike the Stinger jeep, the pickup truck could not be used to squish Zerglings under its tires for very long. And in any case it probably wouldn't even be a good idea to try that, as the Zerglings could easily pop the tires with their claws and render the truck immobile.

In short, this was among the worst possible choices to use to reach Raynor and his troops, but both he and Nova agreed that there was simply no other option. According to the coordinates transmitted by him regarding their location, Raynor was almost 20 miles away from their hideout. Reaching him on foot would take hours. Adding in the fact that there were thousands of Zerg in the ruined city, it would clearly be a suicide mission.

Not that Mal was too optimistic about reaching them on the truck either. The vehicle had no armaments of its own, so he and Nova packed up all the cases of fuel and ammunition that it could carry. Fortunately as it was designed for transporting duties, it could carry a decent load, and the two of them were able to load it up with all the cases necessary, and still leave room for Nova to ride in the back. She would have to provide the fire cover while Mal drove the truck as fast as he could to the designated location.

It wasn't a welcoming prospect. A single hit from the Zerg creatures on one of the fuel cases would be enough to turn the truck into a fireball and incinerate them both, but it wasn't like there was any other option in the matter. Even if by some miracle the Lurker attacks didn't end up blowing the fuel tanks, their subterranean spines would certainly be enough to make them leak, and thus would be necessary for the extra fuel. As for the ammunition, that was self explanatory. There was no telling how many Zerg they'd encounter along the way, so every bullet was going to be needed.

The Dominion did not provide Kelerchian much in terms of armaments and firepower, as his job was merely to seek out children with high psionic signatures and report them. All they ended up giving him was an AGR-14 Assault Rifle, which although had similar hitting power to the marine's C-14 Gauss Rifle, it was certainly weaker compared to Nova's C-20 she normally used. It was hoped that the spare ammunition would make up for that deficiency, but obviously there was no way to tell.

"Come on, Mal," Nova said, clutching the AGR-14 rifle and climbing onto the back of the truck. "Let's get out of here. We need to reach Jim right away."

He nodded, getting into the driver's seat and stepping on the gas pedal. The pickup truck pushed itself out of the garage and into the ruins of Tarsonis City.

It didn't take long before they knew they were going to have company. Despite being outdated, the truck was still equipped with a radar system, and Mal quickly picked up incoming hostile signatures closing in on them from multiple directions.

"We've got bogies incoming!" he called out.

"Just focus on the road, I'll deal with the Zerg," Nova assured him, cocking her rifle.

The wrangler pressed down harder on the gas pedal as he could hear shots being fired. Glancing briefly from the rearview mirror, he could see packs of Zerglings chasing after the truck. Nova was putting as many bullets into them as she could, but more Zerglings simply took the dead ones' places.

Suddenly, the right side mirror of the truck was shot off, as Nova turned her head to see Hydralisks moving up from the flanks. Being the greater threat due to their ranged attacks, she trained her AGR-14 Rifle on them instead.

"Hang on!" Mal shouted, as he swerved the truck around, turning onto another street.

Unfortunately, this was something the Zerg had anticipated, and as the truck completed its turn, he was horrified to see Roaches directly in front of them, blocking their path.

Nova saw this too, but knew of a means to improvise. Focusing her psionic powers, she telekinetically picked up one of the fuel cases and hurled it at the Roaches. Just as it landed right next to them, she opened up with her rifle. In an instant, the fuel case exploded in a giant orange fireball, and all of the Zerg were screaming as they were being burned alive.

By now, the Zerglings have caught up to them, and Mal was desperately trying to move the truck away. It wasn't so easy due to all the rubble in the streets, but fortunately the truck could at least handle some measure of rough terrain.

As the truck moved on, Infestors began to make their appearance felt. Nova was forced to switch her fire to them instead of the Hydralisks because of their fungal growth ability, which would have slowed the truck to a crawl. This allowed more and more Hydralisks to accumulate from behind them.

Mal desperately tried to zigzag in order to avoid their needle spines, but this was impossible. A single Hydralisk housed hundreds on them in its body, and Dominion battle reports have indicated that these creatures have proven to be relatively accurate marksmen in the heat of battle. Despite his best efforts, the truck was being pelted by more and more of them, and while none of them have hit the tires yet, he knew that their vehicle wouldn't be able to take much more of this.

For Nova riding on the back, the zigzagging certainly helped her avoid the needle spines given the lack of room for maneuverability, but it also make her task of aiming a lot more difficult. By now, Banelings have also joined in the chase, moving alongside the Zerglings, Roaches, and Hydralisks.

Fortunately, this was the opportunity she needed. Taking aim, she fired right into the bellies of the explosive Zerg creatures. Given their thin carapace around there, one of the Banelings detonated its volatile burst prematurely. The acids splashed onto the carapaces of the other Banelings, which caused them to detonate as well. This caused an even bigger splash of acid onto the nearby Zerg, and Roaches and Zerglings were stopped dead in the tracks, writhing from the pain.

Unfortunately, the Hydralisks were smarter, and quickly burrowed into the ground just as they saw the Banelings explode, thus avoiding the acid and saving themselves. As the acid dissolved, they quickly popped back out from under the earth, and continued the pursuit.

Nova picked up another fuel case, this time hurling it towards one of the structural support beams near a barely standing building. Firing upon that, it caused the beam to collapse, and the rubble fell in front of the Hydralisks, blocking their path. She could hear them angrily banging their scythes on the barrier, but were unable to get through.

But from the distance, she could also see Ultralisks approaching, and there was no way the rubble could withstand a charge from a massive Zerg creature like that.

"How much further are we?" she asked Mal.

"According to Raynor's coordinates, about 11 miles away," he answered. "As long as we don't run into any more Zerg, we should be fine."

She nodded grimly, never taking her eyes away from the barrier as the Ultralisks began pounding on it with their Kaiser Blades. "Get us there as fast as you can, Mal. That barrier isn't going to hold the Zerg up for very long, and we don't exactly have any weapons right now to deal with Ultralisks. We have to reach Jim and his troops as soon as possible."

* * *

**Dominion Propaganda Ministry, Korhal**

Arcturus Mengsk stepped into the main grand hallway of the Dominion Propaganda Ministry building, escorted by his most elite Dominion bodyguards. It was far from luxurious or grand compared to the Korhal Palace, but it was still a symbol of Dominion might, and that was something he intended to make sure it lived up to its purpose. In the four years after the Brood War came to an end, he only had to come in person to this place once, and that was in the Brood War's immediate aftermath. It was necessary, as the Dominion military had been decimated by the Zerg, and the fear of a Zerg invasion was in the minds of every Dominion citizen across virtually every Dominion world.

On Korhal itself it was even more so. Not only was there the fear of the Zerg, but there was also the fear of another UED invasion into Dominion territory. Even Mengsk could not hide the fact that despite the Dominion's best efforts, the UED forces had defeated them, and it took a lot of effort for the people of Korhal to look up to the Dominion once more.

That's all in the past, however. The entire planet had undergone a dramatic change in the four years of quiet since then. Post-war reconstruction efforts were increased dramatically, and Dominion tax revenues facilitated in the funding of decontamination of radiation, as well as modernizing and beautifying each and every city on Korhal. While Valerian looked more towards the arts and sciences aspect of Korhal, Mengsk devoted more energies regarding the military perspective, and vast quantities of credits were poured into its defenses. Within a matter of years, the planet became the most heavily fortified world in the whole Koprulu Sector.

For all the efforts made, Korhal had been left in relative peace ever since the Zerg went silent after the Brood War. There was only one exception to all this, occurring in 2503. That year, the capital city of Augustgrad was attacked by enhanced ghost agents known as Spectres. Led by the former Dominion ghost and now traitor Gabriel Tosh, they had struck into the city and attacked his personal palace, killing all of his elite guard and even his ghost bodyguards. Only one Dominion ghost operative survived, Agent X41822N. She alone had fended off the Sprectres' attacks, but the majority of them were able to escape. Fortunately, her success later on only proved her worth once more, and as the Dominion's deadliest operative, she never failed in her missions.

Mengsk frowned deeply as he thought that. Raynor had proven to be more persuasive than he had anticipated. The exact details were not known, but the fact remained that after fighting alongside him to defeat Tosh and his Spectres on Avernus Station, Agent X41822N had somewhat changed her ethics and morals towards the terrorist. To make matters worse, Raynor and his terrorist had somehow found a way to sever her loyalties to the Dominion. With the neural inhibitors removed, the Dominion emperor lost the ability to return her to his control, and thus Agent X41822N became Nova Terra again, this time fighting by Raynor's side.

It was a severe blow to him. Agent X41822N's skills and abilities were unparalleled, and Raynor turned her against him. Adding to that was the fact that the rebel also prevented him from killing Kerrigan on Char. Now the shadow of vengeance and retribution loomed over the horizon, and there was much work ahead of him if he was going to salvage the situation.

Mengsk still clearly remembered what Raynor had said to him prior to the Char invasion, that once this business with the Zerg comes to an end, he had a score to settle with the Dominion emperor. The rebel had no intention of stopping until he got the justice he desired, and Kerrigan would be no different. Just as everyone in the Koprulu Sector right now holds her responsible for everything she did during her time with the Zerg, Mengsk also knew that the former Confederate ghost held him responsible for abandoning her at New Gettysburg.

Whatever they were planning now, it mattered little to him. It's obvious that sooner or later Korhal was going to be subjected to attack. Despite its formidable defenses, the emperor knew that Raynor's terrorist organization was steadily growing in number. Warfield and his troops had joined hands with Raynor in the aftermath of the Char invasion, and Dominion salvage teams have been unable to locate the wreckage of the mass quantities of weapons and ammunition that had been stockpiled for the Dominion Armada at New Folsom. This time, Mengsk chose not to make any assumptions without proof. More than likely the supplies had fallen into Raynor's hands, and this would strengthen his forces dramatically.

Still, Mengsk remained confident that if Raynor also took all the New Folsom prisoners with him, it'll backfire on him. With so many murdering psychopaths now on his team, they'll eventually defy the rebel commander if he doesn't provide them with the opportunity for retribution soon, and the emperor still counted on that to destroy Raynor from the inside.

Because of that, it was time to get the situation on his own end cleaned up. If by some miracle his hope doesn't fall through and Raynor's forces aren't plagued by internal conflict problems, then there would be the matter of convincing the Dominion to stand against him. For the Dominion military, this wouldn't take much effort. The rebel commander's actions have left plenty of Dominion soldiers determined to see him in a prison cell so that he and his terrorist would stop the constant rioting problems throughout the Dominion empire, not to mention all the soldier buddies they lost in battle because of him.

The public, however, would be a lot more difficult to convince. Tensions remained high in the aftermath of the rioting with regards to the Korhal broadcasts, and it was necessary to get the people to stand behind him again. This was exactly the reason why he was here to meet up with Minister LeJuin. During the four years of peace, the Dominion Propaganda Minister had done his job in uniting the people and spreading the Dominion influence to other worlds. There were those that took minor effort to join hands with the Dominion, while others only did so grudgingly. But the fact remained that his efforts were a success, and now Mengsk had need for his talents once more.

He found him hard at work in his office, busy looking over speeches and media broadcasts. As he turned around in his chair, Mengsk ordered his guards to lower their weapons. It would look bad to appear so hostile over one of his most valuable assets.

"Emperor, it's been a while," LeJuin greeted, offering his hand.

"It has indeed, minister," Mengsk said, accepting the handshake. "I don't think I need to tell you the reason I've come here in person, that should be self explanatory."

"Of course, you want my help in getting the Dominion public to trust you again. I must admit this isn't going to be easy since we can't falsify the evidence that Raynor uploaded."

"If it was so easy to do, I'd have done it by now," the emperor scoffed. "Right now the public is outraged at both me and the Dominion military. They're accusing the military of being too incompetent of taking the fight to the Zerg like Raynor had on Char, while accusing me of having lied to the people. They're all saying that I assured them that I would protect them, and yet I chose to abandon them when the Zerg invasion began."

"Well they _do_ have a point there," the minister pointed out. "When the invasion began, you _did_ pull the fleet back to the Dominion Core Worlds. If you didn't plan to abandon the Fringe Worlds, what was your plan exactly?"

Mengsk waved his hand, dismissing the question. "That's beside the point, LeJuin. The point here is that the Dominion people on the Core Worlds need to be reminded that Dominion protection is necessary."

"And how do you plan on doing that? Don't forget, your son Valerian made it clear that the Dominion tactics on Char would have gotten them all killed, it was Raynor's actions that ensured the invasion was a success. So now, the people are very skeptical of the military."

"That doesn't matter," Mengsk said coolly. "Raynor is only one man, and no matter how big his terrorist group has gotten, the Dominion Armada is still larger. He can't be everywhere at once."

"Maybe not," LeJuin agreed. "But how are you going to convince the public they need the Dominion to protect them?"

"That's an easy one," the emperor answered. "The Zerg have answered that question for me many times over. When the invasion began, you can even consider it a good thing. It got all the people to stand united behind me and the Dominion, and everything went smoothly until Raynor's actions on Korhal."

"I've kept contact with the military too," the minister pointed out. "I know that after the Char invasion, Zerg activity has been relatively low. Whatever happened on Char must have stopped their invasion completely."

"That doesn't mean they're a pushover anymore, LeJuin. This could also just be the calm before the storm."

"With all due respect sir, wouldn't that contradict everything you've told the people for the last four years? Ever since the so-called Brood War ended, you and I worked together to make speeches to the Dominion people about how mighty the Dominion military is, and how weak our enemies are. You made numerous public speeches to soldiers and civilians alike about how powerful the Dominion is, and how only with your guidance can the people be protected. Even when the Zerg invasion began, you had appointed General Warfield to lead the Dominion to victory against the Zerg. On that UNN broadcast, you said it yourself that with Warfield in command, the Zerg invasion would be contained very quickly."

"I'm aware of that," Mengsk replied. "But the public knows that I'm far from flawless. Every now and then, even the best minds can underestimate their enemy, and as long as the public is convinced that the Zerg threat is still there, that'll be all I need to bring them together against me."

"I don't quite see how that's going to happen," LeJuin said, shaking his head. "Right now it's not like the Zerg are doing anything anymore across the sector, and it's not like you can predict when they're going to gather their strength and attack again."

"That's not something you need to know," the emperor said, gesturing to the computer console. "Now, get started on writing the speeches that I'll be presenting to the public soon. All it takes is for you to emphasize the sheer ferocity and savagery of the Zerg. The public will become paranoid with fear, and will turn to anyone who can offer them protection. The Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate are both too weak compared to the Dominion, so the public will be forced to turn to me again. When that happens, the Dominion people will reunite the way it's supposed to, and Raynor's actions on Korhal earlier will be rendered completely useless."

The propaganda minister sighed. He knew Mengsk was not telling him everything, but second guessing him could be extremely dangerous. With a nod of understanding, he turned his chair around and began formulating speech ideas.

"I suggest you hurry," Mengsk said, as he and his guards began to walk out the door. "The public's patience isn't infinite, and neither is my own. For the last four years, your work had been a remarkable success to the Dominion people. I suggest this time be no different."


	69. Chapter 69

**Author's Note: People may not know this, but on Tarsonis, we have now split into many POVs. There's Colonel Kim and her Dominion troops in the city, along with Kate Lockwell and her UNN journalists. Raynor and his troops are in another part of the city, as is Nova, and now Mal Kelerchian. So now there's going to be multiple POVs, all of which are going to have a say as events unfold.**

**Now, things are going to get quite interesting on Tarsonis, just take a look and you'll see for yourself.  
**

* * *

Chapter 69

**Xel'Naga Temple, Shakuras**

"Great Zekrath," one of the Xel'Naga temple guardians greeted. "We are honored by your presence here once more."

"Your humbleness is not necessary, young Taarim," the Shelak leader greeted back. "Do not forget, although you were once a Shelak Protoss, you are now a Xel'Naga temple guardian. The guardians here may be few in number compared to the individual Khalai and Nerazim tribes, but your people here have tended to the temple for years, whereas I have been away. Compared to you and the rest of the guardians, I am not the wiser in understanding the Xel'Naga."

"How can you say such a thing?" A Zealot asked. "Your Shelak Tribe had safeguarded ancient Xel'Naga artifacts on Aiur for years. Your people preserved the most valuable information of them all, far more important compared to scrolls and text of Protoss history before the fall of Aiur."

"Even now it still pains me to know of the years of suffering you endured there, young Korlendir," Zekrath bowed deeply to the templar warrior. "Had we known the Zerg would have suddenly stopped targeting the Protoss survivors, we would have made far greater efforts to rescue more."

"With the recent victory on Aiur, the Protoss may finally be able to rebuild their civilization there," Taarim said. "However, I must agree with Korlendir. You were chosen as the head of the Shelak because you understood more than the others."

"That may well be, but unlike you and the other Xel'Naga temple guardians, I also had a responsibility to my tribal people. Despite the silence of the Zerg in the aftermath of the Brood War, the threat from them remained. The Shelak may have long tended to the relics and documents of the Xel'Naga, but that does not completely override our loyalty as a Protoss. Hierarch Artanis was correct in that because the danger of the Zerg swarm remained, certain duties normally done by Khalai tribes would have to be temporarily set aside."

Korlendir shook his head, disgusted. "I was among the Protoss templars that defended Aiur when the Zerg invaded. We had not succeeded then, what difference would it make now if such an invasion occurred?"

"This was exactly the reason that the Ara, Furinax, and Shelak Tribes also had to be trained in the templar arts," Zekrath explained. "Had there been a Zerg invasion of Shakuras, every Khalai Protoss would have taken up arms to defend this world."

"That wasn't enough to prevent Aiur from being overrun by the Zerg," Taarim argued.

"It was for this reason that the Shelak was given a second task to intensify our studying of the Xel'Naga. Many Protoss warriors were in agreement that as the Zerg were also created by the Xel'Naga, their knowledge may hold clues regarding their weaknesses and a method in which to defeat them. Unfortunately, the studying of ancient Xel'Naga texts, relics, and artifacts is a difficult process, one that cannot be sped up simply due to dire circumstances. For this reason, the studying of the Xel'Naga was confined to a more restricted role amongst the Shelak, while others within my tribe were forced to stray away from their standard duties in attending to the past and focus on the matter of our survival."

"Is this still true of the Shelak Tribe now?" Korlendir asked.

The Shelak leader thought about it for a moment, before replying, "It was until most recently. When we had been informed of the recent Zerg invasion, there was a great concern among the Daelaam Protoss that Shakuras would be targeted. Even if there was no invasion, there was still the matter of Protoss colony worlds becoming infested by the Zerg, and that had to be contained. It was for this reason that Executor Selendis had been dispatched with her fleet to seek out other Protoss worlds and ensure no signs of Zerg infestation were present. However, after James Raynor's victory on Char had been confirmed, it would appear that the Zerg leadership has been crippled. I had seen the new Kerrigan with my own eyes on Aiur, and she certainly did not resemble anything like the Queen of Blades we had seen her as in the years past."

"There is no proof of that," the templar argued. "Taarim and the other guardians have informed me of what had happened during the Brood War, and how the Queen of Blades used the Protoss to secure her position as supreme ruler of the Zerg. All of them had expressed their sheer hatred and mistrust for her, accusing her of manipulating everyone for her own purposes. You cannot rule out the possibility that she is no longer doing that now."

"That is true," Zekrath admitted. "Nahaan has been relying very heavily on this argument to influence the other Protoss, hoping to convince them to have Kerrigan executed immediately. However, the Hierarch's orders remain in place: the Xel'Naga prophecy must be investigated first. Only when more details about it are known can we turn our attention to matters regarding the former Queen of Blades."

"That is the purpose for why you are here then," Taarim stated.

"Correct," the Shelak leader answered. "Although the Shelak Tribe has tended to the Xel'Naga, understanding and protecting their relics and artifacts, our efforts of comprehension are still considered to be small compared to those of the Dark Templar. Do not forget, until only four years ago, the Protoss ruling body on Aiur had always been the Conclave, and the actions of Khas in the discovery of the Khala was to unite all Protoss into it. The only reason why the Shelak was still granted consent to continue our studies on the Xel'Naga was because the Conclave hoped that such knowledge could expand their knowledge through the Khala. The Nerazim approach is different. They believe that to understand the Xel'Naga is to understand the purpose of all Protoss, and perhaps even the Zerg that they had created."

"If the Xel'Naga prophecy is true, you believe they would leave clues behind regarding it."

"And this is why it is essential to explore the Xel'Naga temple here," Zekrath said, as he and the other guardians began to walk through the temple entrance. "The ancient Xel'Naga texts, writings, and inscriptions carved onto the temple itself may provide us with further information. It was for this reason that mighty Zeratul had chosen to continue to explore world after world throughout the Void, instead of returning to Shakuras, where he is respected by all Protoss. He believed clues regarding the Xel'Naga are left on different worlds, and each must be investigated so as to better arm ourselves with the information."

He gestured to the carvings on the temple walls. "As you have been guardians to the Xel'Naga temple for years, all of you must have looked over and translated much of the ancient texts in this structure."

"We have," Korlendir answered. "However the majority of the texts that we have been able to translate only speak of the massive nexus that the temple sits upon, where it speaks of the cosmic energies it houses, and how they're to be controlled by the twin crystals of Uraj and Khalis. Other texts had shown that the twin crystals were carved from larger Khaydarin Crystals, where the Xel'Naga had carved and had given them to us. There are still other texts, but we have not been able to successfully translate them yet."

"Then that will be one of the objectives for the guardians here," Zekrath said, still amazed at the beauty of the temple. "I must request you increase your efforts on the translations. If there is any information that can be connected to the prophecy we have found, it must be uncovered immediately. The Daelaam Protoss are not comfortable that thus far, the only being that holds further clues regarding the prophecy is the Overmind itself, and I am in agreement."

* * *

**Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char**

Tal'darim warriors bid their farewells to their brothers in arms as they prepared themselves for the ritual. Ulrezaj channeled his psionic energies to extract the life essence of Tal'darim High Templars. As predicted, the process itself proved to be fatal to them, but none of the other Tal'darim protested against this act. It was clear that they were all willing to be part of the sacrifice to fulfill the Dark Archon's great plan.

With their energies, he incased them into the Khaydarin Crystals, now having been fully assembled by the Tal'darim. Other Tal'darim warriors were still on the ashes of Char, fighting the numerous Zerg creatures, while others continued to carry out his request of capturing further live Zerg specimens. Ulrezaj himself was slightly unsure of how much Zerg energy would be required, as he intended to make the Khaydarin Crystals before him much more powerful than the warped crystals he had created years ago.

The Dark Archon had seen for himself the genetically enhanced Zerg breeds, some of which existed before the Queen of Blades had become part of the swarm. The Devouring Ones and Hunter Killers were genetically enhanced Zerglings and Hydralisks, and they proved to be vastly more powerful compared to their original counterparts. The Torrasque was a genetically enhanced Ultralisk type, and it proved to be extremely powerful on the battlefield.

However with the new crystals, Ulrezaj intended to more than just enhance the Zerg to the new strains such as those. They already existed within the swarm, and despite their power, they were still far from invulnerable. The technology terrans wield may not be advanced compared to the Firstborn, but they were nevertheless capable of killing these enhanced Zerg strains.

Not that the enhanced Zerg the Dark Archon intended to create was to be considered invulnerable either. The Queen of Blades had spent a great deal of energy evolving the Zerg, but they could still be killed on the battlefield, as James Raynor's victory on Char had testified. Rather, Ulrezaj intended to create new Zerg strains and incorporate them into the swarm. It would certainly give the Zerg an advantage in the field of battle, and the Khaydarin Crystals would ensure their loyalty to him.

In particular, Ulrezaj had looked over a number of the Zerg breeds that his Tal'darim warriors had captured for him. Among the ones he took a particular interest in were the Ultralisk, Lurker, and Brood Lord. The Ultralisk itself was the most massive Zerg group creature that could be bred in mass numbers, but it had its drawbacks in its relatively slow speed. This allowed retreating forces to escape when the massive beast was on its own. In addition, despite the Queen of Blades's efforts in succeeding the Ultralisk to burrow, the fact was that it could not move while burrowed underground. Granted Zerglings and Hydralisks did not have the ability to move while burrowed either, but this was compensated by their fast burrowing speed, allowing them to resurface and quickly pursue their prey. In comparison, the burrowing speed of the Ultralisk was extremely slow, and the same was true for its unburrowing speed. This meant the element of surprise was usually lost on the field of combat, and it left the Ultralisks extremely vulnerable to attack during the burrowing and unburrowing process.

An enhancement to the Ultralisk had already been made and incorporated into the Zerg swarm in the form of the Brutalisk, where the genetic codes of the Zergling and the Hydralisk were combined with those of the Ultralisk. Although the Brutalisk had an even slower moving speed compared to the Ultralisk, this was compensated by its ability to defend itself with its ferocious acid spew ability, capable of tearing apart aerial opponents with relative ease. Nevertheless, it shared the same weakness of the Ultralisk, its burrowing and unburrowing speed was too slow and thus made the creature vulnerable.

The same was true of the other Ultralisk enhancement, known as the Omegalisk. Dwarfing the size of the Ultralisk, it shared the beast's speed while moving on the ground, yet still retaining the ability to burrow. Like the Ultralisk and Brutalisk however, the Omegalisk was simply too massive to be used as effectively as one would hope. Short of crushing its allied Zerg minions in its path, none of the three Zerg beasts had excellent agility or maneuverability on the battlefield.

What was needed was something that shared the characteristics of the Pygalisk, a much smaller version of the Ultralisk. Fast and agile, it was capable of tearing apart its enemies quickly, even though its Kaiser Blades lacked the destructive force of the Ultralisk's Kaiser Blades. Unfortunately, because the Pygalisks were so small and fast, it also meant that this speed and agility came at the sacrifice of the carapaces that made the Ultralisks, Brutalisks, and Omegalisks so difficult to kill. As had been demonstrated on the battlefield, until they reached within striking distance of their Kaiser Blades, the Pygalisks were no match for the ranged attack firepower of the Tal'darim Colossi, Stalkers, and Sentries. Only small numbers were able to get within range to engage in combat with the Zealots, the rest were shredded by Colossi thermal lances, Stalker particle disruptors, and Sentry disruption beams.

Ulrezaj knew that enhancing the Ultralisk speed for extended periods of time while still maintaining their thick carapace was simply not possible. However, that may not be necessary as such tasks could fall on the other Zerg breeds. It was merely needed to give the Ultralisks a temporary speed boost in the heat of battle, something that its enemies would never suspect.

With regards to the Zerg Lurker, it was a different story. Their subterranean spine attacks had proved their worth when engaging the Tal'darim, tearing apart Zealot and Stalker armor with ease and forcing many of the Protoss attackers to retreat towards their Shield Batteries to recharge their psionically generated plasma shields. Unfortunately, this strength also proved to be their weakness. It did not take very long before the Tal'darim warriors were able to determine the ranges of their spine attacks. Once this was discovered, the counter strategy to deal with the Lurkers was relatively simple: a single Stalker would move into position and be subjected to the attack of the Lurker's subterranean spines. It would then blink away, forcing the Lurker to unburrow and chase after it. Since the Lurkers have no defensive capability while above ground, they became easy targets for the psionic storms of the High Templar warriors.

It wasn't that the Lurker's attack was a bad thing, what made it difficult was the fact that despite its long range, it still had its limits. Tal'darim warriors could simply move out of its subterranean spine range and force the Lurker to come up to the surface, where it would be easily slaughtered. The Lurker's burrowing speed was also lacking. Although faster compared to the Ultralisk, it was still considered relatively slow when compared to the Zergling, Hydralisk, Roach, and Infestor.

Thus the purpose of the Khaydarin Crystals would also be to remove the Lurker's weakness. If it was not possible to remove its weakness of being completely defenseless while above the surface, Ulrezaj certainly intended to correct the problems regarding its burrowing speed and ranges of attack.

The Brood Lord was certainly an improvement compared to the Zerg Guardian of four years in the past. The Dark Archon still remembered those Zerg creatures when the swarm had attacked the Dark Templar homeworld of Shakuras, their acid spores capable of tearing apart the armor of the Dark Templar with ease, and the same was true of the Khalai Zealots, Dragoons, and even Reavers. Yet the Guardian was not without its flaws. Compared to the Mutalisk, it was extremely slow in flight, and despite its long attack range, it was defenseless against aerial opponents, which made them easy prey to the Protoss Scouts, Corsairs, and Carriers. Their slow speed also made it difficult for them to escape such adversaries, and during the fighting on Shakuras, the Protoss frequently encountered them with Mutalisk escorts as protection.

This problem had only been partially rectified in the Brood Lord. The massive Zerg flyers now had faster flight movement, and their broodling strikes proved far more destructive than the Guardian's acid spores were capable of. Their sighting ability had also been improved, allowing the Brood Lords to see further on the battlefield and thus selecting the proper targets in which to strike at.

However despite the improvements, weaknesses still remained. Although faster than the Guardian, the Brood Lord was still considered extremely slow. To compound to the difficulty, it still shared the Guardian's weakness of being defenseless against aerial opponents, and this lead to many of them being shot down by Tal'darim Phoenixes, Scouts, and Void Rays. While Mutalisks were used in great numbers to defend the Brood Lords, it would appear that the Mutalisk had not evolved much during the last four years. Their Glaive Wurm attacks still proved to be as formidable as ever, but their attack range were still extremely limited and this led to many of them having to move far away from the Brood Lords in order to engage the Protoss ships.

Nor were the Zerg ground breeds any more cooperative in protecting the massive flyers. The Queens were too slow to move when off the creep, but the Hydralisks were a different matter. Unfortunately for the Brood Lords, the Hydralisks showed greater interest in engaging in battle with the Protoss Zealots instead, rather than using their needle spines to fire at the Protoss ships targeting the Brood Lords. This meant that the Brood Lords were mostly deprived of protection from aerial enemies, which made it a simple task for the Tal'darim ships to handle.

In addition the Brood Lord still had the problem that the Guardian had in that it could not be bred from the standard Zerg larvae. Similar to the Guardian that required it be mutated from the Mutalisk, the Brood Lord had to be mutated from the Zerg Corruptor. During the time it is spent in the cocoon phase, it was extremely vulnerable to attack. Although Zerg Scourge flyers tended to protect the aerial cocoon, they too had the tendency to fly off and attack the nearest possible Protoss that came within proximity. This became a common sight, and the Tal'darim used Scouts to lure the Scourges away, before disposing of them with Stalkers due to their inability to attack ground units.

What was required was thus a new type of Zerg flyer, one that had a much faster rate of movement compared to the Brood Lord. Furthermore, the Dark Archon hoped to eliminate the problem of their ability of only attacking ground units. It was Ulrezaj's intention that with the enhanced crystals, he would be able to breed a type of Zerg aerial creature that still possessed the long range of Brood Lords, yet also have the ability to strike at air targets like the Mutalisk.

This would not be long from now. Once he had gathered a sufficient amount of Void energy from the Tal'darim, the next step would be to assimilate the energies of all the Zerg specimens that the Tal'darim have captured into the Khaydarin Crystals. If all went according to plan, he would once again have a number of Zerg broods under his control. It would be considerably less significant compared to controlling the whole Zerg swarm as his master intended, but it would nevertheless be a step in the right direction.

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Jim smiled as he saw Nova climbed out of the pickup truck. "I'm glad to see everything is all right with you and Agent Kelerchian."

"It hadn't been an easy ride," the blond ghost admitted. "Got into a few Zerg skirmishes here and there, and this truck wasn't meant for dealing with that."

"The point is you two both got here in one piece, that's plenty right there," he said, before handing Nova a C-10 Canister Rifle. "I know you'll be wanting this. You're certainly more used to that than the AGR-14 you're holding."

"All right, Raynor," Mal said, frowning. "You said you can keep the two of us safe, but right now all I see is everyone out in the open. I'd say this makes it a perfect target for the Zerg. They were still pursuing us earlier, and I'm pretty sure they haven't given up the chase just yet."

"I suspected as much," Jim said, looking over at the rest of his troops. Goliath pilots were standing by, awaiting orders, while Banshees and Vikings patrolled the skies overhead. "Even so, I doubt that they'd focus only on us and completely ignore the Dominion forces in the city."

"Have you picked up anything from their comm chatter or anything?" the wrangler asked.

The rebel commander shook his head. "They maintained radio silence for the most part, and the flyboys have picked up very little activity during the daylight. They must have moved during the night and we just didn't happen to see it, and have probably not moved from their position from wherever they are right now."

"Could they still be in the city?" Nova asked.

"They have to be. If they were going back up to the orbital platforms to leave Tarsonis, the BattleCruisers from orbit would have picked up that activity right away. They're probably just hiding, trying to conceal themselves so the Zerg will only focus on us. They think once we're all dead, the Zerg will go back into their hive cluster. Only then would they come out of hiding and go back to their salvage operation."

"Raynor, it's possible that the Zerg already killed them all," one of the marines said.

Jim shook his head again. "Not likely, soldier. First off, the Zerg wouldn't kill that many without infesting. If that's what happened with all the Dominion troops, we would have encountered plenty of infested terrans by now. In addition the Zerg don't exactly care about hiding bodies from us. If they were all dead, why haven't we seen any bodies yet?"

"Then maybe the Zerg took them all to their hive cluster," Mal suggested.

"I already thought of that," Raynor insisted. "I had a few Wraiths fly over the hive cluster to make some observations. All the reports still say the usual activity, with the Hatcheries, Lairs, and Hives producing the larvae to be hatched into Zerg creatures, which are then sent right into the city. There's been no sign of cocoons being prepared to hatch infested terrans, or even any sign that terrans were brought to the hive cluster for infestation."

"So how do we know where they are?"

"We need to reach the transit hub," he answered. "It'll be the best place to locate the Dominion troops. When I was on Tarsonis last time, the Dominion had restored power to the old rail network, and that's where I raided the Dominion trains which got me that adjutant with the information about Mengsk's war crimes in using the Zerg to kill the people of Tarsonis four years ago. If the Dominion had done the same degree of restoration for the train station here, the rest is self explanatory. At least, that's what the officers have told me."

"They aren't wrong about that," Kelerchian replied. "Ever since I was posted to Tarsonis, the emperor admitted that getting from one place to another in the city would be a pain in the neck because the almost every street and alley would be full of rubble. Thus during the earlier days, Dominion clean up teams did arrive to clear a few of the streets, but mostly they focused on the rail system in the city. The engineers made enormous efforts to get the power back up, for the primary, secondary, and tertiary routes. The Confederate military installations may not be scattered across the city, but given the chaos unleashed by the Zerg back then, it's pretty easy to see the technology get scattered about anyway. Therefore, any and all military secrets and technology found in Tarsonis City would be located quickly using the trains there."

"Did they factor in the possibility of Zerg attacks?" Nova asked.

"It was secondary compared to the salvaging, but yes," the wrangler admitted. "If you have a map of the city, I can show you."

Jim nodded to one of the officers, and he came forward with the portable projector. Raynor pressed a button on it, revealing the blueprints of Tarsonis City, back in its glory days.

Mal pointed to a few areas on the holo-map. "From the transit station, those are the following places that the Dominion have visited recently in the city. Nothing too substantial was dug up though, mostly just blueprints for the Diamondback tanks, which is something the Dominion already have. There were also the drawings for improved CMC Armor for Firebats, but the Domininion is still somewhat hesitant on using them en masse on the battlefield. They certainly haven't proven as effective as people would have liked against the Zerg."

"Any idea where they might explore next?" Jim asked.

"There's a section of the city that's still more rubble strewn than the others to the north of the transit station. That's where a major Confederate military installation was located before Tarsonis fell to the Zerg," Kelerchian explained. "The previous salvage operations have looked mostly at secondary locations for military secrets and technologies, so the area I'm referring to is largely unexplored. From what you told me, it's also among the few places in the city the Zerg have not yet moved into, so if the Dominion troops are still here, that'd be where they're going."

At this point, Jim's radio went off. "Commander, you need to head to the transit station soon! It looks like the Zerg flyers have spotted you, there's a huge concentration of Zerg heading your way!"

"Give me the numbers!" Jim demanded.

"At least 20,000, if not more. It looks like they've gotten fed up with the small attack waves. This one is going to be a major push to kill you all."

"Fine, we'll get to the trains to escape them," Raynor shook his head, before gesturing for a Vulture bike to be brought forward for Mal and Nova. "Hop on in, we're getting out of this place."

* * *

**Transit Hub, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Kate Lockwell sat with the rest of her UNN journalists on one of the makeshift benches in the dilapidated Tarsonis transit station. Like the rest of the city, and for that matter the rest of the entire planet, this place still carried plenty of scars from the Zerg assault four and a half years in the past. The whole place had very little power, save for the rail network itself, so the Dominion engineers had set up makeshift lighting from improvised poles taken from the rubble strewn streets.

The air down here was very heavy, and at times the female anchorwoman found it difficult to breathe. She had raised the issue with one of the Dominion engineers, and he responded by saying that this part of the transit station was located underground, where only minor work had been done in terms of restoration. The focus of the engineers in the underground areas was only to ensure that the tunnels wouldn't collapse on themselves so that the trains would safely make it through. Thus huge efforts of resources and manpower had been poured in to clear the rubble in the tunnels, as well as to reinforce the remaining support beams that held the tunnels up. For the places that had collapsed, new support beams were built, and those sections of the tunnels were restored.

Unfortunately for her and the UNN reporters, no plans had ever been made to accommodate civilians like them in this section of the station. In terms of the areas where the station was above ground, the Dominion engineers could have at least improvised. Here, it was considerably more difficult.

Nevertheless, as one of the Dominion engineers had quickly pointed out, being down here had its advantages. The entrance to this underground section had been camouflaged, and with most of the surviving Tarsonis refugees living on other worlds, only someone who knew the layout of Tarsonis City inside out would be able to locate the entrance. That meant the Zerg wouldn't be able to unless they came really close, and that did not seem very likely. None of their flyers would be able to spot the entrance unless they swooped in really low, and even then they would have a difficult time doing so.

Thus as long as she and the Dominion troops stayed down here, they should be relatively safe from the Zerg. However, everyone knew that sooner or later they'd have to get to the surface, and this was exactly the reason why almost all of the Dominion engineers were currently concentrating their efforts on one of the trains and rail tracks further down the tunnel. The train itself had sufficient armor plating to take quite a beating from the Zerg, and at their normal speed, the massive Zerg creatures such as Ultralisks would be too slow to catch up to it. The same would be true of the Zerg Brood Lords. For all their destructive capabilities to ground targets, they were too bulky to fly quickly about the battlefield.

Colonel Kim had told her just a few minutes ago that the main concentration now was to add in the thrusters that would significantly boost the train's speed. It was necessary to do so because of the sizable numbers of Mutalisks still flying over the city. Despite their short attack range, the Mutalisks' speed was on par with that of the train at its normal velocity, and that would make it very easy for swarms of them to attack the train. The armored vehicle itself had no defensive capabilities, so without the speed boosting thrusters, the only way to defend against such attacks would be to put marines on the top of the train cars. Needless to say, that was not something the Dominion marines favored, as such a task would clearly be suicide in the face of so much Zerg.

At this point, one of the Dominion marines looking over the radar console suddenly called Colonel Kim over. "Colonel, we've got incoming!"

"Impossible," Kim said. "The Zerg couldn't have found this location so quickly. We've been here for hours and everything's been quiet. What changed?"

"I don't think it's the Zerg," the marine answered. "The numbers approaching the station's underground entrance are too few in number."

She nodded in understanding. "Then it must be Raynor and his boys. They're coming here to try and escape the Zerg. Well, that's not going to happen." Kim then spoke into her radio, "Engineering team, report in. What's the status of the train thrusters and the rails?"

"It's still going to have to be a while, ma'am," came the reply. "This train wasn't exactly in tip top shape when we found it here in the station. It's been dilapidated, just like the rest of the city."

"But is it able to run?" Kim demanded.

"Of course, colonel. These are maglev trains, so they're much easier to run compared with what technology we used centuries in the past. The electromagnets on the rails are in reasonable shape, but the ones on the train are not. It's still going to take some work on our part before we can get the electrodynamic suspensions working so that the train can levitate, I'd estimate another three to three and a half hours."

At this point, the general alarm went off. "Colonel Kim!" another marine shouted. "I think you need to come over here and see this!"

"What's going on?" she demanded, rushing over to the radar console. As she glanced at it, her eyes widened. Behind the red dots of what was probably Raynor and his boys was a huge red mass of dots, some 20,000 in number, all of them coming this way.

"What the hell is that?" the marine asked, frightened.

Kim clenched her fist in anger, before turning to the rest of her troops. "Damn that Raynor! He's going to bring the whole horde right on top of us! Everyone, lock and load. We're about to have some _very_ nasty company."


	70. Chapter 70

**Author's Note: Blackhole1, you and I talked over PM and you said that our minds tend to think alike. In the 3rd part of this chapter you'll see the similarities of just that. All you have to do is compare it to the 1st part of chapter 64 and 66 of _your_ fic and you'll see exactly what I mean.**

**Anyways I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 70

**Dominion Base, Bel'Shir**

Dr. Collins rubbed her temples. Her head hurt from looking over the computer files for so long. The Dominion doctors had sedated private Jenkins, and the marine was fast asleep again in the med bay. With General Madison still out there with most of the remaining Dominion troops, the Command Center was now considered to be relatively quiet given that the general had ordered radio silence to be maintained so that the Protoss here wouldn't intercept any of their transmissions.

Even now, no shots have been fired yet, and that meant that the Dominion doctors here had little to do. She, on the other hand, felt otherwise. Like many of the doctors, Collins wasn't too happy about being left in the dark. Granted few people do, but in situations like this, it was just completely unacceptable. Even General Madison and his troops felt this way, despite their training to take orders without questions from the emperor. The general had already told her that Mengsk would explain the purpose behind the terrazine mining they were doing on Bel'Shir, as well as the jorium they had collected on Redstone III. However to Collins, this did not satisfy her.

Most people knew that the emperor was not exactly an easy man to read, even for telepaths, and that just made it even easier for him to hide secrets from everyone else. It also meant that whatever he says may not entirely be true, or that there's more to the picture than one would think. Most of the Dominion doctors agreed with that, but unlike them, Collins was determined to do something about it.

Some may argue that it was considered to be treason, but she didn't see it that way. It was a simple matter of knowledge, something that the emperor seemed to withhold from everyone else. That was also a concern that Dr. Collins had, where she felt that it was possible that even if the terrazine mining operation here on Bel'Shir proved to be successful, once Madison submitted his report to the emperor, Mengsk still wouldn't tell them the entire story.

Being left in the dark is one thing, but being left in the dark with the Dominion in the state it's in right now is quite another. Collins herself was not pleased with James Raynor had his actions on Korhal. True she did not exactly favor the emperor, but to cause widespread chaos and havoc across the whole of the Dominion while they were in a state of war with the Zerg just made no logical sense to her. Some of the worlds she had visited did show posters of the rebel as their freedom fighter, but his actions against the Dominion have not exactly demonstrated that. Rather, it seemed more like Raynor was trying to drag everyone in the Dominion into the abyss or something. With the Zerg invasion still going on back then, the last thing anyone needed was internal fighting. True, now that the invasion had been stopped, people clearly want answers about their emperor, but at the time Raynor had made the Korhal broadcasts, there was no telling just how much longer before the Zerg would have been dealt with. Mengsk himself had assured the people that with General Warfield in command of the Dominion military, the invasion would be stopped in no time, but despite his boasts, no such thing had happened by the time of Raynor's broadcasts on Korhal.

To that end, Collins felt that the emperor had some embarrassing questions that the media would ask him once he finally made himself public again. Korhal was the most heavily defended Dominion world, and its defenses were so formidable that Mengsk had constantly boasted over the UNN news that anyone foolish enough to even think of infiltrating the planet would be dead long before he could even enter Korhal's upper atmosphere. That James Raynor was able to penetrate down to the planet's surface and accomplish his mission, in the emperor's eyes, should have been considered unthinkable, yet it happened anyway.

Well, that was something she could look into at another time. For now, she wanted to see if clues could be found regarding the purpose behind the terrazine they were collecting. So far the only clue was from the Dominion experiment, Project ShadowBlade.

General Madison had agreed to give her access to the Dominion files regarding the project, it wasn't top secret anymore since he had already told her and the rest of the Dominion doctors about the whole project and the disaster that had unfolded because of it. He would have looked this over more carefully himself, but the general just couldn't spare the time for that. The Dominion marines, Marauders, Reapers, and others needed him and his leadership out on the battlefield, and Madison still had a duty to the soldiers under his command.

Dr. Collins decided to pick it up from where he had left off. The Dominion files had to hold some clues, she just needed to find them. It may not be her area of expertise, but she always felt that maybe if she looked hard enough, she could find something that others hadn't. Maybe it was entirely possible that the clues were staring everyone right in the face, but no one realized that was actually a clue to begin with. That did not seem very likely given the level of skill of the intelligence analysts within the Dominion military, but one could never be sure.

This was what she had been doing for the past few hours, and so far there have been virtually no success. All of the files on Project ShadowBlade were mostly giving her the exact same thing that General Madison had told them in the conference room, about how terrazine had first been discovered, how the Dominion personnel went psycho upon being exposed to it, and how the test subjects in the project also went psycho from hallucinations and such after inhaling the terrazine substance.

The only files left were those regarding the testimonies of the test subjects themselves, but for the most part had been dismissed by the Dominion project personnel. These were the only ones that still might be able to tell Collins about what they were dealing with here, so she clicked on a few of them.

The vast majority of the test subject files still said the same thing about they were experiencing hallucinations and dementia, but one of them was somewhat different than the others: Cole Bennett. The Dominion reports still say that he went psycho, but from his own testimonial words, it looked like he knew what he was talking about. Of all the test subjects, despite the files had said he was the most violent one, he also seemed to be the one who truly believed in the potential of this project and what it could accomplish.

As none of the other files had been helpful so far, she decided that this was the only way left to go. Entering in a few commands on the computer terminal, she accessed Cole Bennett's file.

The information within it amazed her. According to his testimony, he was the primary example in the entire project of how terrazine could actually work. He went on to explain how his psionic powers had been exponentially increased, although it wasn't possible to remove the side effect of the hallucinations completely. Nevertheless, with careful dosages, they would become manageable, rather than be completely driven mad by it.

Personally, given the way she had seen Jenkins react when exposed to even the slightest bit of terrazine, Collins was not very convinced, but she clicked on another one of his files and continued to read.

Bennett further explained that in order to ensure that the test subjects do not act irrationally, another component was needed in addition to the terrazine: jorium. In the testimony, he admitted that an excess of terrazine would indeed cause mental instability, and the same would be true even if terrazine was inhaled in small, controlled doses. The latter would merely take a longer period of time compared to the former, but the outcome would still be the same. The substance known as jorium was vital in order to keep the side effects of the terrazine to a minimum. If taken properly, everyone would be able to properly control the terrazine substance, and this would bring about a new generation of soldiers to the Dominion military.

The female doctor frowned deeply when she read that. Jorium was the very substance that the emperor had ordered Madison to obtain on Redstone III earlier, and now terrazine was to be collected on Bel'Shir. Madison had told her about the amount of terrazine that Mengsk had ordered him to collect, and in comparison to the amount present in Project ShadowBlade, it would be significantly greater.

Yet to her, this still didn't make any sense. All of the Dominion files said that Bennett was completely insane, and this insanity from him and the others was the reason the project had been shut down. Now it seemed as if the emperor was trying to revive it once again.

To what purpose though? She agreed with Madison's conclusion of all this. If loyalty couldn't be guaranteed, what would be the point of increased power? The Dominion's enemies were too long to list already, there'd be no point in adding even more people to the list. Bennett clearly turned against the Dominion, so Collins felt that even if every word of what he said was true, it seemed obvious that others would follow.

There was nothing more on the Project ShadowBlade files, however. This meant that whatever Mengsk was planning, it involved projects other than this one, since nothing here told her anything about how the loyalty problem could be solved, and that would be the most vital aspect of them all.

* * *

**Dominion Base, Toxic Slums, Dead Man's Rock**

Dominion SCV pilots moved in to clear the rubble taken from the Toxic Slums junkyard after yet another demonstration of the Battle Hellions that had been recently delivered to their base. General Ridgeway was still uncertain if the mercenaries here on Dead Man's Rock would truly have the nerve to attack here, as all of the arguments made by Mengsk and some of his junior officers seemed to suggest otherwise.

Nevertheless, no chances could be taken. He was not one who was so arrogant to believe that the possibility wouldn't even exist, otherwise he never would have ordered the defenses around the base be constructed. There were obviously signs of resentment towards this, of course. Many of the SCV pilots and engineers felt it was a complete waste of time and energy. After all, the Dominion base on Dead Man's Rock was never intended to be a permanent one, so even if base defenses are constructed, they should be mobile ones, not fixed into position.

The general thought differently. Such views weren't wrong, but that's from the Dominion's perspective. The people of Dead Man's Rock weren't aware of this, so therefore it would be better if they were given a different impression instead. Rather than make it seem as if the Dominion establishment here was only temporary, the citizens here should be made to believe that the Dominion would be here for the long haul, and that the base here would only be the first of many to come, that the Dominion would continue expand from the installation here.

If the people on this lawless world could be convinced that the Dominion intended to permanently settle here, the initial reactions would be obvious. There'd be panic in every city and town, looting, rape, and murder would become common, and there would be the great urge to turn to anyone who could protect them from the Dominion authorities. It wouldn't help them in the long run, but they may not look that far. For the few that would look further down the road, they'd be too busy getting their transports ready to evacuate the planet and settle on some other pirate world to escape the Dominion. As for everyone else on this world, eventually they would have no choice but to accept the inevitable and integrate into the Dominion. That was how it has been in the four years since the Brood War came to a close, where the emperor added more and more worlds in the whole Koprulu Sector to the Dominion empire, though even Ridgeway had to admit that at least some of those worlds were integrated via means that he didn't exactly favor.

For the time being however, he continued to look over the base fortifications from the operations room within the Dominion Command Center. There have not been any signs from the Dominion scanners that there was going to be an attack on the base, but there was still about 45 hours before his offer expired to the people of Dead Man's Rock, and a lot could change within that time. Until the timer clock actually hit zero, Ridgeway knew it would be too risky to take such a chance. Orders were thus issued accordingly, and all of the Dominion personnel on the ground obeyed.

With regards to the Battle Hellions, they were forcing some modifications to the entire defense strategy, but it was something that could be adjusted for relatively quickly. The additional armor plating that had been added to the transforming vehicle had proven to be very effective, as the trials have shown. Unlike the standard Hellion scouting car, in its bipedal form the Battle Hellion was shown to be slightly more durable than the Goliath mech walker. The greater armor did mean there was a significant loss of speed compared to the regular Hellion, and the Battle Hellion was slightly slower compared to the Goliath. Nevertheless, the firing trials and experimentations on the armor plating have shown that its neosteel armor and the newer model infernal flamethrower did much to make up for the deficiencies in the loss of speed once it had transformed into its bipedal state.

The new armor plating now meant that the Battle Hellion could withstand a direct hit from an artillery shell fired from a Siege Tank's 120mm shock cannon and could still keep on fighting. The plating covered parts of the flame fuel tanks, which were mostly exposed on the standard Hellion and therefore could not be so easily destroyed by small arms fire anymore. The firepower from the 35mm cannon on the Stinger jeeps could now no longer make quick work once the Battle Hellion was in its bipedal state, and neither could the 30mm Hellsworn flak cannons on the Grizzly fighter-bombers.

The Battle Hellion's armor was not without its limits, of course. The testing trials had shown that it was still vulnerable to the B2-C Concussion Bombs from the Grizzly, a direct hit from that had clearly been too much for the new vehicle to withstand. The plating around its legs were not as thick as the Dominion engineers had hoped for, and there was a very real risk that a direct hit from a Vulture Spider Mine could blow the leg right off. The armored shielding plates on its arms were large, but the backlash rockets fired from the Banshee missile pods had a slightly scattering effect, and the plates weren't large enough to shield the Battle Hellion from them completely. And those plates certainly could not withstand a direct hit from a Thor Hammer particle beam from the Thor walker. They were the most powerful of the terran ground machines, designed to crush just about that stood in their path, and the Battle Hellion was no exception to this.

Still, virtually none of these drawbacks would matter in the event of a mercenary attack. Most mercenary military equipment were completely outdated, so the weaknesses from the Stinger jeep, Grizzly fighter-bomber, Banshee strike aircraft and Thor walker wouldn't be a problem because the mercs had none of those at their disposal. The Siege Tanks might be as it's been confirmed the militia do have such machines at their disposal, though it was not known in what quantity. Fortunately, the Wraiths, Banshees, and Grizzlies would be able to make short work of them, and many of the pilots have been ordered to target any Siege Tanks they spot on the battlefield in the event of a mercenary assault.

The Vultures were obviously in far greater number, but here too the problem could be easily solved. It was only the Spider Mines that the Vultures lay that presented the danger to the Battle Hellion, not the Vultures themselves. Spider Mines were very dangerous on the battlefield, but they were all designed for defense, not attack. Therefore, in order to lay a Spider Mine close enough to actually attack the Dominion base defenses would require Vultures to get within very close range. By then, the Dominion marines, Marauders, and Goliaths will have had them all shredded with their gunfire.

The improved infernal flamethrower also proved to be a substantial help with regards to contributing to the possible base defense. Their range compared to the Hellion was only slightly longer on the Battle Hellion, but this was compensated by the width spread of the flames. Although some of the Dominion Hellions had their infernal flamethrowers upgraded to Twin-Linked versions which doubled their flame width, the fact remained that they could only be fired in a straight line. On the other hand, the Battle Hellion was able to fire its flamethrower in an arc, thus greatly improving the chances of hitting targets attempting flanking maneuvers.

Similarly, most of the Hellions were not upgraded with Thermite Filaments like the Battle Hellion's flamethrower had been. This meant that the Battle Hellions were capable of incinerating lighter targets much more effectively, and the test trials had proven so. Vultures, Goliaths, Stingers, and Armored Personnel Carriers all had their armor quickly burned through by the Battle Hellions. Obviously this was relatively ineffective when going up against Thor walkers, and the same would more than likely hold true against Protoss Colossi and Zerg Ultralisks, but that wasn't a relevant issue here on Dead Man's Rock.

Some of the Battle Hellions were already being deployed to guard the entrance to the waste processing facility. Although auto turrets and Siege Tanks already covered the only possible path leading to the entrance, a few extra defense measures couldn't hurt. If the mercenaries were foolish enough to keep pressing towards the entrance despite the risk of being cut down by bullets and blown to pieces by artillery shells, perhaps the additional risk of being incinerated alive would get them to think otherwise.

Other Battle Hellions were being deployed to the artificial junk mounds that the Dominion engineers gathered from the nearby junkyard. The mounds would already force the mercenaries to seek alternate routes, but since most of those only lead to other Dominion fortified positions, there was the possibility that the attackers may decide to go through the mounds anyway. They were all positioned in such a way that large vehicles can't go through them very quickly, only infantry can. And with the Battle Hellions guarding many of those corridors, anyone who would be foolish enough try would be reduced to ashes long before they could reach the base entrance.

Just about everything that could be done to fortify the base against the mercenaries was being done right now. Ridgeway saw no reason why the defenses couldn't hold regardless of what those cutthroats threw at them. Hopefully, they wouldn't be so foolish as to gamble everything on the base assault should it come down to that. Once the mercenaries realize the attack had no chance of succeeding, they'll make contact with the Dominion troops and reveal Mira Han's whereabouts.

* * *

**Transit Center, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Jim could see the tensions on everybody's faces right now. Despite fighting together to repel the constant Zerg attack waves, it did not mean mutual cooperation was being shown. It wasn't the first time he sat on a powder keg this big, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Still, the sheer amount of distrust and hatred was clearly having a detrimental effect on the soldiers here.

This was especially true in the resulting silence on the battlefield each time a Zerg attack wave was repulsed, which was exactly the case right now. For the last two and a half hours both his and the Dominion troops had been subjected to three Zerg attack waves. The first two were only probing ones, but the last one that had just been repulsed was on a much bigger scale. From the Vikings and Banshees flying overhead, they reported that the next attack wave would be arriving in about 15 minutes from now.

Looking around, he could see that the Dominion troops were in a state of greater exhaustion than his own men were in. So far the Zerg attack waves had been just as heavy as the ones his troops had been subjected to 24 hours prior. It would mean that the Dominion troops got the lucky end of the stick that day, as they must have received fewer Zerg attacks. Of course, this also meant that they were not as prepared as his own men were for dealing with the vast numbers of Zerg they had to deal with now.

Casualties had not been very heavy, but fatigue was another matter. More and more requests for air support were being called as the Zerg numbers proved too many for the Siege Tanks, Goliaths, and Stingers to handle. Attempts had been made to lay a carpet of Spider Mines in front of the transit station entrance, but the Vultures stood little chance against the massed usage of Ultralisks when they drove out into the open to deploy the mines.

By now, although the entrance approaches were covered in the corpses of Zerglings, Roaches, Infestors, Hydralisks, and Lurkers, their sacrifice had served their purpose. Their actions had allowed the Ultralisks to rip the entrance open with their Kaiser Blades. Now it was wide enough so that the Zerg could no longer be channeled into a bottleneck in order to squeeze through and enter the underground station. This was obviously making the UNN journalists down there extremely nervous, and Colonel Kim had been repeatedly demanding news from the Dominion engineering team about the train status.

Out on the battlefield, Nova had proven her skills once more by leading the Zerg into ambushes for the marines, and despite the fact that the Dominion troops detested her for joining with the Raiders, Jim could see that some were still forced to admit that her actions did save their lives. The same couldn't be said for Warfield's troops he commanded, and this obviously increased his uneasiness about the whole situation.

Many of the Dominion troops were already furious to hear that it was thanks to Mal Kelerchian's knowledge of Tarsonis City that had allowed Raynor to find the exact location of the station entrance in the first place. They too were not pleased with how the wrangler was assisting the rebel in his work. To them, it seemed like Raynor was turning everyone against the Dominion.

"Seriously, colonel," one of the Dominion marines grumbled angrily. "What the hell were you thinking? We had the opportunity to kill the rebel terrorist who's caused the Dominion so much hell for all these years, and you just let him and all his boys walk right into the station."

"We've been over this before, soldier," Kim said, disgusted. "I don't like this any more than you do, and I would have given the order you guys wanted under any other circumstances. But when you have some 20,000 Zerg coming after you, well let's just say it's better to look at the matter of survival first."

"Survival?" another marine seethed, forgetting his military discipline. "Thanks to Raynor and his terrorists, the whole of the Dominion nearly disintegrated after what he did on Korhal! How can you just overlook that?"

"I'm not," she replied. "And the rioting and such have indeed taken a toll on the Dominion. But something tells me Raynor's intentions weren't about genocide. You compare that to what the Zerg can do, I'd say that makes him the lesser of the two evils right now."

"Why do we need his help?" a Marauder grunted. "It was our forces that had invaded Char! If was the Dominion fleet that defeated the Zerg there!"

"You people are full of your arrogance," Jim said, folding his arms. "All you see and hear is what you want to see and hear, and turn a blind eye to the rest of the picture. If you even bothered to pay attention to the news broadcasts at all, you would have known the Char invasion was a combined effort from the Dominion and my Raiders."

"Your Raiders were nothing compared to might of the Dominion! It still is now!"

Raynor rolled his eyes. "That's exactly the reason why so many Dominion troops got slaughtered during the initial invasion stages. All of you had arrogantly convinced yourselves that your military might was unequaled, and you paid dearly for that against the Zerg."

"He's not wrong in that aspect," Kim said quietly. "Prince Valerian had admitted to Raynor's actions during the invasion, and that it was his actions that allowed the Char invasion to succeed in the first place."

"Then that just makes him a weak sympathizer!" another marine shouted. "The Dominion military is the most powerful force in the sector! No one comes even close to our might!"

"Still you delude yourself," Kelerchian spoke up, siding with Jim. "The emperor boasted about the Dominion might when the Zerg invasion began. But answer me this: if the Dominion is so powerful, why didn't the UNN report any Dominion success in driving the Zerg back?"

"Shut your mouth, wrangler! You have no right to speak here! You're the reason why we're all in this mess in the first place! You led the Zerg right to us!"

Suddenly, the marine dropped to the ground, unconscious. Mal turned his head to see Nova unleash a psionic shock that temporarily shut down his brain. "If anyone else speaks like that to him again, you won't have to worry about the Zerg killing you," she said dangerously. "I'll be more than happy to put the bullet in your heads myself."

Kim sighed in frustration. This was clearly not getting anywhere. The hatred circulating around right now was so strong that she almost wished the next Zerg attack wave _would_ come soon. So far, it seems to be the only thing that can unite everyone. The longer they delay the next attack, the more likely it seemed that everyone here was going to end up killing one another first.

"Colonel Kim, please respond," her comm-link suddenly went off.

Immediately she opened the channel. "Dominion engineers, I hope you finally have some good news," she said.

"We do," came the reply. "We finally got the electrodynamic suspensions on the train to a working order."

"What about the thrusters?" she demanded.

"Them too, ma'am. The train is now online and ready for departure at the station. We've already moved Ms. Lockwell and the rest of the UNN journalists onto the train cars."

"Good," Kim said. "We need to get out of here before the Zerg overrun the whole area."

She turned her head to her troops. "Everyone, get underground! The train is ready, so we're out of here!"

"What about Raynor and his boys?" one of the Reapers asked, still looking at the rebel commander with contempt.

Kim thought about this for a moment, before replying, "They're coming with us. Don't argue with me, just let it be for now. I'll explain my reasons later."

Raynor could see the grumbling from both sides as infantrymen all descended underground and headed for the train. Goliaths, Stingers, Vultures, and other military vehicles followed. He let out his breath, sighing in frustration. This ordeal was still far from over.

"Understand, Raynor," Kim said dangerously. "I'm not saving you and your boys for any noble reasons you may think. I'd be perfectly happy to leave you all here and let the Zerg chew you up, but there's just too many of them in the city right now. Regardless of who is the better soldier here at dealing with them, some of us are willing to admit that you've dealt with the Zerg more than the Dominion has, and right now I'm willing to accept that if it'll save my troops. You try anything, and I'll personally bury you and your boys here."

The rebel commander was not fazed. "I'll take that as a compliment, Kim," he said, before turning his head to Nova and Mal. "I know how both of you feel about the Dominion, but right now we need to escape the Zerg. At least try to keep the hostility down."

"No promises, Jim," Nova said. "These Dominion marines _really_ know how to push a girl's buttons."

* * *

**Mercenary Underground Hangar, Dead Man's Rock**

Regular militia troops and mercenaries gathered around the strategy desk in the underground hangar. A portable communicator console had been placed on the top of the desk, with the faces of Matt Horner and Mira Han both on the display screen. Kerrigan gathered along with the other Raiders and mercenary officers, where the last meeting would now take place before the attack on the Dominion base began. Most of the other mercenaries had already loaded themselves onto the Heavy Transports, Planet Hoppers, and Heavy Landers. The Raiders too had done the same thing, most of them were now standing by on the Dropships and Hercules Cargo Ships.

Everyone agreed that the meeting must be kept relatively brief. In less than 43 hours, General Ridgeway's offer was going to expire, and no one knew just how long it would take to defeat the Dominion forces at the Toxic Slums, especially given the fact that the vast majority of Mira's mercenary equipment was outdated, and some were obsolete. The Raiders had much more modern equipment, but in terms of actual numbers, the mercenaries still outnumbered them here on Dead Man's Rock.

Mira explained that she still hoped that the other mercenary leaders elsewhere on the planet would come to their senses and aid them in the assault, especially since there were no assurances that the Dominion wouldn't go back on their word and use the nuclear warheads anyway. However, there were no guarantees that they would do so, and thus the plans had to be made to assault the Dominion installation without their assistance.

"The artificial mounds that the Dominion engineers have set up are specifically designed so that no vehicles larger than a Hellion or a Vulture can get through," the red haired ghost explained. "Those are very lightly armored and can be easily taken out by small arms fire. The only way to go through the mounds quickly is to clear them out of the way."

"Our Sloth bulldozers can take care of that," one of the mercenary marines stated.

Sarah shook her head. "Your dozers aren't meant to operate on the battlefield. You may have replaced the dozer blades with cannons, but the bulldozer's armor itself is still too weak."

"The best mercenary equipment for this task would be your Confederate Avenger aircraft," Franklin said. "Here, accuracy isn't too important, so the rocket pods will do just fine for the task."

"We'll use the Kel-Morian Hellhounds to deal with any marines on the ground," Mira explained from the display screen. "It'll provide a path for the rest of the ground troops to reach the base entrance quickly."

"Once you reach it, I recommend the mercenaries wait until the Raiders bring in the heavy artillery," Matt pointed out. "According to Kerrigan, the Dominion put Siege Tanks to cover the entrance. You may have tanks of your own, but they're irreplaceable if destroyed."

"What about the Dominion air support?" another mercenary asked.

"The Hellhounds can deal with the Grizzlies," Franklin explained. "The 30mm Hellsworn flak cannons they have were designed to engage in ground targets. They can shoot at aircraft too, but not very effectively. If your Hellhounds can't handle it, the Wraiths and Vikings will take care of the job for you."

"Whatever Dominion BattleCruisers are at the base will also be dealt with by us," Matt added. "I don't see them using it, but you never know. If it becomes too much, we'll also throw in our Goliaths to handle the job. The Raiders' Goliaths have all been upgraded with the Multi-Lock Weapons System, allowing it to fire its autocannons and hellfire missiles simultaneously. Your mercenary ones may not have that, but as long as they can provide missile support, it should all work out."

"The Dominion infantry on the ground should not pose too great a threat," his wife reminded her mercenaries. "Remember, they're comprised of regular soldiers, we on the other hand have at our disposal of War Pig marines, Hammer Securities Marauders, and Devil Dogs Firebats. These guys have had far more combat experience compared to the Dominion troops."

"The Raiders BattleCruisers will also provide support against the Dominion Thors," Sarah added. "There's not much anyone can do against an artillery barrage from one of them, so as long as we coordinate the strikes, we can eliminate that threat."

"What if some of them are guarding the waste processing facility?" Franklin asked.

"If we can penetrate deep enough into the Dominion base, my forces will deploy their Siege Breakers," Mira answered. "Their Arclite Shock Cannons will keep shelling the approaches to the facility and hopefully that'll be enough to draw the Thors out, where they can be squished by your BattleCruisers."

"Try to keep damage to the processing facility to a minimal," Matt warned. "We don't know where exactly the Dominion have the nuclear warheads placed in the building. If they're being kept deep underground, then it's not a problem. But if they kept them close to the surface, one stray artillery shell could set them off."

"Then it's settled," Franklin said. "Once the assault on the Dominion base begins, we'll all try to lure as much of the Dominion forces out into the open. That should prevent us from going into the radioactive and toxic areas that the engineers set up as further defense for the base. Once they stop falling for that trick, their numbers will hopefully have thinned out enough for us get things done with minimal casualties."

He glanced at the mercenaries, before continuing, "One way or another, all I can say is that there's a very real possibility that the mercenaries may have to endure less than acceptable casualty levels, but it's the only way. The Dominion troops must be led away from the processing center or they have to be bled to death there. Once that's taken care of, Kerrigan will go in there and disarm the nuclear warheads."

Seeing no objections from anyone, Mira spoke up. "Remember, whatever happens today, the hope is that it'll be beneficial in the long run. The Dominion must not be allowed to bring Dead Man's Rock under their control. As mercenaries we usually tend to our own business, but we also have an obligation to protect our independence. If that means we have to work with people we aren't comfortable with, then so be it. Now, let's get this show on the road."

The mercenary officers there saluted their commander on the screen, before dispersing and heading towards the transport ships. Sarah, Franklin and the other Raiders did the same. Within a matter of minutes, the first of the ships' engines roared to life, and Raider and mercenary transport and combat ships took off from the underground hangar and into the sky.


	71. Chapter 71

**Author's Note: In the second part of the chapter, here is where I show another difference compared to the SC Canon. When Wings of Liberty first came out, the city in which Raynor made his broadcasts was only called Korhal City. They never said if Korhal City and Augustgrad were the same city or not, and they kept changing their minds back and forth, sometimes saying they were, sometimes saying they weren't. Eventually, they decided that Korhal City and Augustgrad were the same place, but I had written ahead on my fic before that decision. So in my fic, Korhal City and Augustgrad will be two different cities on Korhal.**

**To Blackhole1, this is where you and I portray Mengsk somewhat differently. At times my version of him can be a lot more arrogant, and vice versa. This was why I kept recommending to you in my reviews of your fic to have Mengsk leave the Imperial Palace in Augustgrad and actually _face_ the public, because with the situation he was in, he can't expect to wait it out until the problem just fades away.  
**

**For those of you who have read 3 "The Dark Templar Saga" books, the first part of the chapter might offer some very interesting thoughts that I'm unsure if you thought about Khas in those books. Hopefully my thoughts here are something for you to think about.  
**

**As always, please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 71

**Xel'Naga Caverns Entrance, Aiur**

A mound of Aiur's sacred soil was dropped down onto the ground, as Furinax Protoss workers immediately tended to the task at hand. Vartanil was working with them, helping hundreds of his brethren in the task of camouflaging the entrance that granted access to the ancient Xel'Naga Caverns that lay beneath the surface of Aiur.

As in the case with himself only a few years prior, he had been astonished to know such a place had existed on their homeworld. Even the Dark Templar admitted to know very little, believing the sacred underground city to be mere myth. According to what he recalled from speaking with the female terran Rosemary Dahl in 2503, the Shel'na Kryhas did not have the slightest idea of something so sacred had still existed on Aiur.

They of course could not be blamed for it. By the time he and other Tal'darim Protoss had escaped through the Warp Gate to the Nerazim homeworld of Shakuras, Aiur had been so ravaged by battle that it seemed impossible that any trace of Protoss civilization could have survived. The Zerg had laid waste to every continent and infested every providence that they could find, and with the exception of Aiur's resources that the swarm used to strength its broods and hive clusters, nothing else was spared.

On the other hand, throughout Khalai Protoss history on Aiur, there had been very few records of cities and providences built beneath the ground. Indeed, none of the Khalai Protoss had ever believed that someday, they would be fighting to defend their homeworld, and they certainly did not anticipate that they would be forced to evacuate from it.

Once he had been manipulated by the Dark Archon Ulrezaj and had joined hands with the Tal'darim on Aiur, the sacred Xel'Naga Caverns had indeed provided sanctuary for them. Although the Zerg eventually stopped targeting the Protoss survivors on Aiur, there was no reason to believe that the vile creatures would not start it back up again as time passed. Still, the Zerg did not seem to know of the existence of the Xel'Naga Caverns either, and that meant that he and the other Tal'darim were mostly safe from them.

Still, it had not been worth it in the end to have become a pawn for their so-called Xava'tor. Reports from the Daelaam Protoss have confirmed that the remaining Tal'darim survivors on Aiur were being purged of the Sundrop substance that had corrupted their minds and cut off their link to the Khala. Although there was still no indication that they had any intentions of integrating into the Daelaam Protoss society, Vartanil was confident that it would only be a matter of time before they opened their eyes to the greater picture at hand.

Regarding the task of camouflaging the caverns entrance, it had come by decree of Hierarch Artanis to the Furinax leader Tabrenus after being persuaded by Urun and Mohandar. While the former Tal'darim had been disappointed in their current view with regards to the former Queen of Blades, Vartanil had been forced to concede to the logic of their arguments.

The Protoss from Urun's Auriga Tribe and Artanis's Akilae Tribe had both prided themselves as warriors, but their actions did not succeed in preventing the Zerg swarm from invading and then later overrunning the whole of Aiur. The Sargas Tribe of Protoss warriors and assassins, along with Velari Tribe reserves, and even the powerful Ara Tribe fleet had been added into the defense, but they had all ultimately failed in the end.

Now, with only scattered pockets of Zerg resistance remaining on Aiur, both Urun and Mohandar recommended to Artanis that a different approach was necessary in order to safeguard the treasures of the Xel'Naga. Despite Kerrigan's actions in assisting them during the assault on the Overmind, there was no assurance that the ancient Xel'Naga artifact James Raynor had used on Char had truly severed her control over the Zerg swarm. Urun had voiced his concern about this matter when the former Queen of Blades had been brought before the Protoss Hierarchy, and Vartanil shared the Auriga leader's concern should another invasion of their homeworld occur.

For that reason, it had been recommended that instead of concentrating vast numbers of Protoss Templar warriors around the Xel'Naga Caverns, it would be better to simply camouflage the whole area and make it appear that there was nothing significant in that location. Some of the Protoss Templars had argued against this, as they did not fear battle, but Artanis quickly brought them to reason by pointing out that no matter how glorious it was to engage in combat, it could not be done for a lost cause. A high concentration of Protoss in the area would immediately give the impression to the enemies of the Firstborn that they were protecting something valuable there. If the Zerg succeeded in overwhelming the defenders and gaining access to the Xel'Naga Caverns, the whole matter of fortifications would mean nothing.

On the other hand, by camouflaging the entrance and having the whole area nearly devoid of Protoss would give the impression that there was nothing of value here, and the Protoss Templars eventually accepted this logic and reasoning.

This was certainly still not the case with the Shelak Tribe, however, and the same was true for many of the Dark Templar once word had gotten out of the existence of the Xel'Naga Caverns.

Having venerated the Xel'Naga for so long, Vartanil and the other Furinax Protoss had to fend off wave after wave of Shelak protests about sealing off such a valuable source of information, even though the intent was only for it to be temporary. Vartanil himself had been greatly questioned, as when he was with the Tal'darim he had set foot in the caverns, though not to its very heart where the giant Khaydarin Crystal was located.

Though his answers were only in bits and pieces, it did not take long before the Shelak Protoss concluded that the sacred Xel'Naga artifacts that lay within the caverns greatly exceeded in both number and importance compared to those that lay within the Cave of Relics. That had been the Shelak Tribe's primary location of sacred Xel'Naga treasures on Aiur, having moved them to that location during the Aeon of Strife so that they could be better protected from the other Protoss tribes.

Now, such a place was considered insignificant compared to the sacred Xel'Naga city built underneath Aiur, and many Shelak Protoss had wanted a chance to study the treasures that lay within immediately. According to the Khalai Protoss history records that had survived the Zerg infestation during the invasion of Aiur, the Conclave had known of its existence during its early days as the Protoss ruling body, but then forbade entry into caverns. However with the Conclave dissolved, some of the laws made to the Protoss people no longer apply, and the interest among the Shelak Protoss continued to grow.

The Nerazim tribes on the other hand also showed an interest in understanding the Xel'Naga relics within the caverns, but not to the same degree as the Shelak. This was because among the most bitter moments of Dark Templar history was their exile from Aiur. When Khas had created the psionic link that was later turned into the ordered philosophy called the Khala, the Dark Templar had refused to submit to it, and the Judicators deemed them traitors to the Protoss society and ordered their extermination because they were considered an embarrassment to the Khalai Protoss.

For that reason, there were those among the Dark Templar that grew uncomfortable to learn that it was from the sacred Xel'Naga Caverns that Khas had discovered the Khala psionic link in the first place. His philosophy did bring an end to the Aeon of Strife, but by now, after everything that both the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss have experienced at the hands of the Zerg, along with the Xel'Naga prophecy, there were those among the Dark Templar who couldn't help but wonder if Khas had been mistaken all those ages ago.

It was only with the energies of the Void that the Nerazim wielded that had allowed the Overmind to be slain. Had all of the Protoss submitted to the Khala, it essentially would have doomed the whole Protoss race as the energies of the Khala had proven to be useless against the Overmind and its Cerebrates. Of course, by the time the Khala philosophy had been created, the Protoss had not yet learned of the existence of the Zerg, so Khas could not be blamed in that regard.

However, Khas was also considered to be a prophet in Protoss history when he had spread word about the Khala across Aiur, and that meant that the Protoss who submitted to his philosophy believed that the Khala would bring to them a golden era for all eternity. After the fall of Aiur, an occasional few among the Nerazim had raised doubts about Khas and his intentions, and that led to great anger among the Khalai refugees, believing that the Dark Templar were going against everything the Protoss stood for.

Yet during the time Vartanil spent on Shakuras, he learned very quickly about the Void, the very energies that had embraced him when he was under the influence of Sundrop. Even now, the Nerazim still saw anything that tainted the Void to be considered unholy to them, and that included the light of the Khala.

The former Tal'darim pushed those thoughts aside as he saw his leader Tabrenus land his Phoenix interceptor nearby. Once he completed his work in the camouflaging of the caverns entrance, he would speak with him. The Furinax leader did not show too great hostility towards Kerrigan when she had been brought before the Hierarchy, but he still warned her of the precautions that the Protoss were taking against her. Vartanil hoped that by speaking with him, he could convince Tabrenus to relax such precautions so as to give the former Queen of Blades the impression that the Firstborn would not allow their emotions to completely blind them as has happened during the Zerg invasion of Aiur.

* * *

**Korhal City, Korhal**

Korhal City. Once, it was a great metropolis city on the Dominion capital world of Korhal. It featured high rising streets and architecture, along with blimps constantly flying over the sky with advertisements. Like the rest of the planet, the city had been decontaminated, modernized, and beautified in the four years after the Brood War. It was where Mengsk had placed the UNN Studios complex to serve as the main media branch for the Terran Dominion after all of its complexes had been lost on Tarsonis when the Zerg had overrun the Confederate capital world. It was from here that the UNN broadcasted to the public about the symbolic might of the Dominion as a shining beacon of hope to all of humanity from its enemies, and its will to protect them from the hostile forces of the Zerg and Protoss.

Unfortunately, that was the situation in the past. Now, almost half the city lay in ruins, a testament to the sheer power of the mighty Odin walker. The emperor had been furious to hear that the Dominion's great war machine had been hijacked by James Raynor had his rebels, and then used to wreak havoc on the Dominion military forces stationed in the city. The Odin itself had been designed to be so powerful that it withstood the attacks of almost everything the Dominion armed forces threw at it, its T800 Cannons capable of ripping apart Siege Tanks, Goliath walkers, and Diamondback hover tanks with relative ease, which meant that the infantry stood no chance against it whatsoever. Its hellfire missiles proved every bit as effective against the Wraiths and Banshees.

Only in the form of concentrated BattleCruiser attacks did the massive walker finally begin to falter, but Raynor had already prepared for that. In the form of massed Vikings, Wraiths, and Goliaths, his rebels had forced the Dominion BattleCruisers to retreat, despite Mengsk's orders to continue to attack and prevent the rebels from reaching their objective. The Odin's massive 330mm cannons had done its job on the city as well, as entire massive skyscrapers were now reduced to mere rubble and facades.

Even now, despite the fact that almost three and a half months have passed since the incident with the Odin, half the city streets were still littered with building rubble and wrecked vehicles, both civilian and military. The only things that have been removed were the bodies of the dead, though in many cases he could still see blood stains on the roads and streets. Thousands of people that used to live in grandiose housing complexes were now reduced to living in refugee camps, made up from the rubble salvaged from the city and hastily built into ramshackles and shanties.

The whole of Korhal City was now in a pitiful state, though Mengsk didn't mind this too greatly as he walked through the streets with his elite bodyguard and Dominion ghost operatives. He never truly favored the city, having only made occasional visits here during the four years in the aftermath of the Brood War, preferring the capital city of Augustgrad instead.

Even before the Terran Dominion existed, Mengsk had never been one to think much of Korhal City. During the days of the Confederacy, the capital city of Korhal had been the city of Styrling, a huge metropolis larger than that of Korhal City and comprised of much of the wealthy. The Mengsk Skyspire had been located there, the most massive building in the city and a symbol of the Mengsk Dynasty before Arcturus himself came to power. It had also been the location of the UNN Tower, headquarters of the Universal News Network before the city of Styrling had been destroyed in the nuclear bombardment by the Confederacy in 2491, along with virtually everywhere else and turning the whole of Korhal into a radioactive desert, which was exactly the reason that the UNN headquarters had been relocated to the Confederate capital of Tarsonis City instead.

By now, Styrling had long since been rebuilt, though not to the majestic scale it once had been. Mengsk never favored the Mengsk Skyspire there, as it was a constant reminder of his father Angus, who he despised. He turned most of his energies to the city of Augustgrad instead, making it far larger, modernized, and beautiful than Styrling had ever been.

Even so, the emperor still would have preferred the old Korhal capital during the days of the Confederacy rather than having to visit Korhal City. To him, most of the city meant virtually nothing, and the only reason he ever bothered to look into matters about the city at all was because of the fact that the UNN Studios complex was located there.

Nevertheless, it had been necessary to make his presence felt in Korhal City. Korhal was the Dominion capital world, and James Raynor's actions in the city had sent a message to the Dominion people that the capital world was far from invulnerable as they had once thought. Indeed, in the immediate aftermath of the Korhal broadcasts, although rioting had become rampant throughout the Dominion Core Worlds, there was also the factor of fear. Mengsk had boasted for years that Korhal was virtually untouchable by the enemies of the Dominion no matter how strong their attacking force was. If a mere terrorist group had the ability to cause this much damage to Korhal City, the people of the Dominion were greatly concerned as to how much of the emperor's boasts were truth, and how much was just wishful thinking.

It was certainly not a sight that Mengsk had wanted to see as he continued to walk down the streets with his bodyguards, while Dominion ghost operatives prevented the city's inhabitants from getting too close to the emperor. Not that this stopped the wave of pleads and protests, however. Clearly the people of Korhal City had been expecting him to come to their aid the moment Raynor and his terrorists withdrew from the planet due to the damage they had caused with the Odin heavy walker.

It was obvious to Mengsk that the people of Korhal City had expected a lot more out of him in terms of damage relief. The Dominion fringe colony worlds were one thing, being located so far from Korhal itself, but here was the Dominion throne world. Back in 2503, when Gabriel Tosh and his Spectres had attacked the Korhal Palace in Augustgrad, the building itself had taken a beating from the Spectres and Dominion ghost operatives battling it out. Yet once the attack was over, he had spent efforts to clean up the damage and repair the damage done. Within barely a week, Korhal Palace had been restored to its former state, as if the attack had never even happened to begin with. Given that, the Korhal City inhabitants had expected him to do the same thing, yet all these months had passed and nothing happened. Clearly by now the people were starting to run out of patience.

Not that Mengsk particularly cared what the people here thought. Their anger and frustration towards him meant nothing as he was the emperor and it's not like they could simply march into the Korhal Palace in Augustgrad and protest. Still, a visit was needed in order to prevent the whole city from rioting. Personally, he wouldn't have really cared about that, but despite his indifference to Korhal City and its people, Mengsk knew he couldn't afford an insurgency on Korhal. Such an action would inevitably cause panic throughout the Dominion Core Worlds. If a few speeches were necessary in order to raise the city's morale and confidence, then that's the way it had to be.

It shouldn't be all that hard. After all, it wasn't his fault why Korhal City is in its pitiful state right now. That credit went to Raynor and his terrorist group. The only thing he had to do was make a public speech to the city's people and make sure that they focus their anger and rage towards him instead, and that exactly what he intended to do as he walked with his bodyguards towards the city square.

Like many other parts of Korhal City, the city square had also greatly suffered from the Odin attacks. Most of the streets there were total rubble, and the parks that featured beautiful trees, plants, and flowers were now nothing but charred ash. The ones that were fortunate enough not to get burned to the ground were all uprooted, many of them having collapsed onto the few streets that were still functional and impeding traffic for both vehicles and pedestrians. It was in the city square that the Odin had gone rogue and the Dominion armed forces realized that the massive heavy walker had been hijacked. For that reason, Mengsk felt that the city square would make the perfect choice for his speech, as that was ground zero, the epicenter where all of the chaos that Korhal City had been subjected to had went down.

The Dominion emperor remained confident that his speech to the people would solve everything. They were nothing compared to his intellect, and were easily deceived and manipulated. Once he had succeeded in getting Korhal City under his belt, he would proceed to do the same with the other Dominion Core Worlds.

"Emperor, we are approaching the city square now," one of his bodyguards said, looking around. "This city sure has seen better days."

"It has indeed," Mengsk replied. "Well, let's just get this show on the road. The sight of this city had disgusted me even before the Odin incident, and it disgusts me even more now. I'll make a brief speech, and then we'll be out of this dump in the blink of an eye."

* * *

**Train, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Jim could feel the tension among everyone in the train car. According to the reports from his Vikings, Wraiths, and Banshees, the Zerg were indeed still pursuing after the train, but most of the ground forces simply couldn't run fast enough to keep up. The flyers were a different matter, but his flyboys assured him that they would keep the creatures busy. So far the reports have been good news, as the train had only been subjected to a few minor Mutalisk attacks, and the armor plating on the train cars had lived up to its reputation and only minimal damage had been achieved.

The Nydus Worms that the Zerg use for transport were of little use in this situation. With the added thrusters the Dominion engineers added, the train was moving too quickly. By the time the Zerglings, Hydralisks, Roaches and Ultralisks exited the worms' maws, the train would already be too far away. Only the Zerglings had the best chance of catching up, but they lacked the ranged attacks compared to the Roaches and Hydralisks. As they could not get right next to the train, no progress could be achieved.

Both he and Colonel Kim had ordered some of the marines and Goliaths to position themselves on the top of the train cars. His own troops quickly obeyed, but Raynor could clearly see signs of resentment on the faces of the Dominion troops. It didn't surprise him one bit about that though. Out on the train cars, the marines would be completely exposed, with only the Goliath walkers to hide behind for cover. However, given the Goliaths' size, it also meant that they could not maneuver very effectively on top of the train car, so putting too many of them up there would become a liability problem instead. This meant that most of the work had to be done by the marines, and this was a bitter pill to swallow in the face of possible concentrated Mutalisk attacks.

As for the rest of their forces, they were put into different train cars, with some of his own occupying one, and Kim's occupying another. The same was true for their vehicles. Luckily, the train they were riding in was once a Confederate freight train, and that meant it could carry large quantities of cargo. During the golden days of Tarsonis, the Confederacy had constructed an intricate rail system in Tarsonis City, both for cargo transport as well as civilian and military uses. Most of it was now rubble due to the Zerg, but enough had been restored for efficient transport and travel.

The only military equipment that had to be mixed together were the Thor walkers. Unlike the Dominion, the Confederacy never developed a mech of such scale. As such, none of its ground transport vehicles were designed for it. Although some of the transport train cars were able to accommodate the heavy weight, it was obviously not their intended purpose. Great care had to be done to ensure that the Thors did not overstress the train cars, and high priority was given to the marines to protect them in the face of concentrated Zerg attacks. Neither he nor Kim's troops were particularly happy about mixing the Thors together, but eventually they agreed that there was simply no choice in the matter.

On the other hand, the command structure to both sides did not share this segregation. While it had been necessary troops under their command to do so in order to prevent them from killing each other, Jim knew that this couldn't be done for the commanding officers. It was no different than during the Char invasion. His Raiders were mostly separated from the Dominion troops until they had to fight together once they successfully reached the surface, but he and General Warfield had to interact with each other face to face. Granted, this had been helped since he and Tychus rescued him and his troops from the Helios crash site from the Zerg, but he also knew that this would have been the case even without such a rescue.

For that reason, he knew a similar action had to be done with Colonel Kim. Obviously the circumstances were different this time around, but it still had to be done. She and the public relations officer Lieutenant Corbin sat across from him, Nova, and Mal Kelerchian, while the UNN anchorwoman Kate Lockwell along with her journalists were sitting away from them.

Lockwell was unsure as to what to say in this situation. Granted she had wanted to do an interview with Jim Raynor, but to have both him and Dominion troops in the same room was something she had not been counting on. And adding to that was the massed Zerg attacks, which only made things even worse. Sure, she reported news of Zerg attacks, that was nothing new, but many of those reports had been done in the aftermath of the devastation brought about by the Zerg. Given the four years of silence from them after the Brood War ended, there had not exactly been an opportunity to conduct interviews with Dominion troops on the frontlines. Even if she had, she and the rest of the UNN news crew would have been positioned well behind the fighting troops, relatively safe from the Zerg attacks, and in any case she would have been given the opportunity to get on a Dropship and be transported away from the battlefield if she chose to.

Here, there would be no such luck. According to the reports from both Kim and Raynor's officers, Zerg flyers were still flooding into the city ruins. Attacks have been made on the Zerg hives, but this has so far only slowed down the Zerg numbers, not stopped it. Some of her journalists have quietly argued to her as to why they had not doubled up their efforts, but the UNN anchorwoman knew that the Zerg always had the numbers on their side, and neither terran force could prevail in a war of attrition.

Of a far greater surprise to her were the actual troops under Jim Raynor's command. She had been expecting his Raiders, but instead she found out that most of the soldiers under his command were former Dominion troops. They had been under the command of General Warfield during the Char invasion. This was something she didn't see coming. Lockwell knew that during the invasion of Char, both Raynor and his Raiders and the Dominion troops faced a common enemy and therefore would work together to fight them, however grudgingly. With the Queen of Blades defeated, however, there was no longer a need for such an alliance. While she didn't expect the Raiders and the Dominion forces to kill each other in the aftermath of the invasion, she _had_ expected them to go their separate ways, and that the next time they encountered each other, it would not be as allies.

That Warfield's troops joined hands with Raynor came as a great shock to her journalists as well, and it provoked even greater anger Kim's troops, many of them accusing them of being traitors to Dominion and having broken their oath. Others were disgusted at the fact that Warfield's troops had lost any honor for siding with a despicable terrorist, while still more were furious at Raynor himself, accusing him of turning soldiers of the Dominion against them to add more numbers to his Raiders and therefore make his job of spreading chaos throughout the Koprulu Sector an even easier task. Not that the anchorwoman believed it herself, but she was curious as to know what could have turned Warfield's troops to side with Raynor. Most of the Dominion soldiers struck her as arrogant and narrow-minded, so it seemed odd that they would side with the rebel commander in such a way. General Warfield may have ordered it, but that only brought up the question as to why the Dominion general had chosen to join hands with Raynor and his Raiders in the first place.

To Kate, there were a lot more questions than she thought she would be asking, but she also knew she had to do this very carefully. The sheer silence in the train car only added further strains on her tension, as did the fact that all the military personnel around her had their fingers twitching on their firearms' triggers. While she believed that Raynor was a rational man, the fact remained that hatred was capable of affecting one's judgment, and the smallest spark here may cause that explosion.

Yet she knew if neither side spoke up, she may have to herself. Otherwise, the tensions here would soon reach breaking point.

* * *

**Toxic Slums, Dead Man's Rock**

"Everyone, the Dominion base is coming into visual range now," a mercenary pilot announced. "The Dominion general's offer expires in 42 hours from now, so it's likely that the nuclear warheads are still inside that waste processing facility."

"Looks like our infiltrator ghost was right about the fortifications," another observed, looking at the silhouettes of the missile turrets that positioned themselves in a ring around the base.

At this point, Mira's voice came over the radio. "What's the status of our ground forces?"

"They're less than 5 miles away from reaching the artificial mounds," the pilot answered. "Same goes for crossing into the hazardous zone for the toxic waste area. Once our Ore Loader and Mining Scout trucks get past that point, it's going to get very dangerous for the troops on the ground even without enemy fire."

"Then let's hope this can be done quickly," the female mercenary commander replied. "Give it everything you've got once the bullets start flying."

Horner's voice also came on the line. "Your troops may need to stay a little longer than you think, Mira. Once Kerrigan gets into the facility and disarms the warheads, we need to get the weapons out of the building right away. Otherwise, even if we level the base, Dominion stragglers might go back in and reactivate them. And just sealing up the facility entrance won't cut it. The Dominion can just dig the warheads back out."

"That won't sit well with my boys, Matthew," she warned.

"No, but it's all going to depend on how the assault goes," the captain answered, before changing the topic slightly. "Will the other mercs on Dead Man's Rock join in for this assault?"

"I don't know," Mira admitted. "I made it very clear to them what may happen if our assault fails, so hopefully they'll come to their senses and give us a hand. At the very least I'm hoping they would send a few observers to see how everything progresses once the attack begins."

On one of the modern Dropships, Sarah watched as the Raiders came into range of the Dominion base. Clearly the Dominion forces had been alerted to their presence, as in the distance she could see the silhouettes of Dominion Vikings, Wraiths, and Banshees coming to intercept their forces.

The Dropship pilot opened up a channel to the mercenary Hellhounds escorting them. "It looks like the Dominion decided to come to us instead. Everyone, get ready to roll out the welcome mat."

One by one, the Hellhounds' laser batteries lit up and opened fire on the incoming Dominion ships.


	72. Chapter 72

**Author's Note: This chapter tends to break things up to see multiple viewpoints. As one of the things that Kate Lockwell didn't expect last chapter, it was the matter of having Raynor's POV and the Dominion's at the same time, and this chapter will address a little of that.**

**Another part is Kerrigan's situation from the Protoss perspective. I didn't want to have the Protoss so thickheaded that none of them were willing to look in another way. Yes Kerrigan betrayed them in the past, but an alliance could never work unless both sides show some measure of faith in each other, and this chapter will begin addressing those issues as well.  
**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 72

**Xel'Naga Caverns Entrance, Aiur**

"These are very dangerous words you speak of, young Vartanil," Tabrenus said to the former Tal'darim. "Unlike the Nerazim, we had all embraced the light of the Khala. To question what Khas had done for the Protoss society is to question everything that the Firstborn stand for."

"The Firstborn consists of the Khalai _and_ Nerazim Protoss," Vartanil said. "Both of the sects had been created by the Xel'Naga. When the Dark Templar were exiled from Aiur, the Conclave deemed them traitors and embarrassments, unworthy to be considered our Protoss brethren. Unlike us, they have a very different point of view regarding Khas and his actions."

The Furinax leader nodded. "Like ourselves, the Dark Templar were grateful that Khas and his Khala philosophy had ended the Aeon of Strife, but once the details of the Khala religion were known, they were far from pleased. The fear of losing their own identities had greatly concerned them, although after spending the years on Shakuras with their kind, I must admit that concern was certainly justified."

"Their unwillingness to submit to judicator rule shows the difference they are to us, great Tabrenus. The Conclave had continuously maintained its position on Aiur as the absolute force of power even as the Zerg spread destruction and chaos throughout the planet. The Dark Templar tribes seem to be comprised of far greater numbers in terms of free thinkers, rather than a society of people that all obey directives from a higher ruling body."

"The flaws of Conclave were great," Tabrenus admitted. "There are those within the Khalai Protoss today that still bear the guilt of living on Shakuras. The Nerazim could have exiled us from their homeworld as we had done to them on Aiur, yet nothing of the sort had happened."

"The tensions within the Daelaam Protoss remain. Once Aiur is fully cleared of the Zerg, we should allow any and all Dark Templar tribes to return and resettle here should they choose to," Vartanil suggested.

"I was thinking very similarly. It is something I intend to recommend to Hierarch Artanis very soon. The Nerazim tribes must be made to understand that the Khalai Protoss have changed since Aiur had been overrun by the Zerg all those years ago. It certainly will not be easy, however. The continued attempts by some of our brethren to persuade the Dark Templar to embrace the Khala have given the Nerazim tribes the impression that we have learned absolutely nothing since our departure from Aiur. In a similar fashion, only a select few of our Khalai brethren had considered looking more closely at the cold energies of the Void, yet for them to embrace it is another matter completely."

"To embrace both of them is extremely difficult," the former Tal'darim admitted. "And there have been dangers to such actions as demonstrated by mighty Tassadar, when the combined might of the Khala and Void energies caused him to burn out like a star."

"And I had seen with my own eyes of the effects if the link to the Khala is severed," Tabrenus added. "When you and the other Tal'darim had come through the Warp Gate to Shakuras, your minds were not in the Khala and had left you all angry and confused. Clearly the task of embracing the energies of the Void is not as simple as we believed once we have already embraced the light of the Khala. Under that logic, it is certainly possible that the individual Dark Templar may react the same way if we force a psionic link with their minds to the Khala. The link they already have with the Void may conflict with it."

"There may not be a need for our sects to embrace what we do not believe in," Vartanil stated. "As long as we stand together against the threat, the Firstborn would be able to prevail. All that we must do is consider all of the possibilities before we take action."

"That is what you wish to speak to me about," the Furinax leader said calmly. "You hope that you can make your appeal to the rest of the Hierarchy regarding the former Queen of Blades and for us to reconsider our views."

"It is something that must be done."

"This too is dangerous for you to speak of," Tabrenus warned. "There are those who feel your fondness for terrans is affecting your judgment. Kerrigan may not have shown any signs of deceit, manipulation or betrayal during our assault towards the husk of the Overmind, but you must not factor out the possibility that she may be simply bidding her time until the proper moment comes to strike."

"I remember the Hierarchy meeting with her clearly," Vartanil countered. "You were among the more sympathetic ones in the Hierarchy towards her, stating that it would be better to watch over her closely to determine where her loyalties now lie. Do not forget, I fought alongside Kerrigan during the assault, and I sensed nothing of betrayal within her."

"The former Queen of Blades's mind is more powerful than almost any of us can comprehend," Tabrenus reminded him. "Her actions in manipulating and enslaving the Dark Templar Matriarch Raszagal were a clear testament to that. You must not rule out the possibility that you could have been fooled."

"I will admit to that possibility," he conceded. "But I am also among the very few Protoss who is willing to see events in an entirely new perspective." Off the Furinax leader's confused look, Vartanil continued, "During my time spent on Shakuras, I had seen with my own eyes of the tensions between the Khalai and Nerazim tribes. In particular, I had heard the thoughts from the Dark Templar individuals in that the Khalai Protoss had falsely accused them of attempting to destroy the Khala, nor had we Khalai Protoss shown any interest in comprehending the ways of the Nerazim during the golden days of Aiur."

Tabrenus thought about this for a moment, before nodding as he understood what the young Protoss was aiming at. "You believe that the Daelaam Protoss is making a similar mistake here with Kerrigan."

"In the Hierarchy meeting, you had stated that only by comprehending the Zerg will it become possible for the Protoss to defeat them," Vartanil pointed out. "This was certainly not the case when the Zerg had invaded Aiur, and the Conclave made no attempt to understand the vile creatures. According to the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss on Shakuras, we had made no such efforts of this during the Brood War either."

"And you feel it is in our best interest to look at the matter from Kerrigan's perspective," the Furinax leader stated.

"The Xel'Naga prophecy is currently unclear to us. It only speaks of the Fallen One that shall break the cycle of the gods, and the actions from mighty Zeratul had only extracted enough knowledge from the Overmind's cortex that stated Kerrigan's role as savior. The details of the prophecy are not yet known, so we cannot say for certain regarding the specifics of the role she must play in the future."

Tabrenus did not show it, but he conceded that Vartanil had a point to all this. Clearly the young Protoss had proven himself to be extremely intellectual, something that is greatly admired within the Furinax Tribe.

"Well spoken, young Vartanil," he said. "You are correct that knowledge is vital to the Protoss, and that regarding the former Queen of Blades should be no exception. I shall make my appeal to Hierarch Artanis about what you have spoken to me now. There will be those who shall oppose the idea of looking at the events from Kerrigan's view, but as you have implied, it would be a small price to pay if it can result in the salvation of the Firstborn."

Vartanil bowed deeply to his tribal leader before turning back to join up with the rest of the Furinax Protoss workers and their tasks. Convincing Tabrenus was not as difficult as he had been expecting, and this was obviously a good thing. Zekrath may be in a similar state given his desire for knowledge. Urun and Mohandar, however, would be far more difficult.

For that reason, the young Protoss considered perhaps going with his tribal leader to speak with Artanis together. The Hierarch had seen Kerrigan's actions during the Brood War, and the greater amount of experience may make the task easier for the Hierarch to consider the feelings of guilt and remorse that the former Queen of Blades was currently experiencing. Perhaps by convincing Artanis, he could then pass his words towards many more of the Daelaam Protoss.

* * *

**Korhal City, Korhal**

Mengsk stood up high from the inhabitants of Korhal City who had gathered in the city square. The crowd gathered before him was larger than he expected, but smaller than he had hoped for. Clearly the reactions of the Korhal City citizens were of a mixed variety when he made his presence felt here. There were those that were relieved to see him, while others showed fear on their faces upon seeing the Dominion emperor.

Still more seemed to show indifference, and that angered Mengsk greatly. Who were they to ignore the presence of the most powerful man in the whole Koprulu Sector? With but a word, he could have their heads on a silver platter if he chose to. Hell, he could have the heads of every person in this entire city for that matter. That his subjects refused to even acknowledge him clearly meant that they had a death wish on their minds.

Of course, that's a bridge he could cross later. For the time being, he had speeches to address to the people of Korhal City.

"My fellow Dominion citizens," he spoke out. "It pains me greatly to see Korhal City, one of the greatest providences on Korhal, has been reduced to such a state. In the past, the Confederacy had done similarly to here when they reduced most of Korhal to radioactive waste with their nuclear weapons. Four years ago, the cursed UED had invaded Korhal and tried to overthrow the Dominion and establish total dominance in the Koprulu Sector. And last but certainly not least, the enemies of the Dominion had hijacked the mighty Odin walker and used it to wreak havoc on the city. The Odin walker was designed to be a machine of security to better protect the Dominion, and instead it had been used as an instrument of chaos. Not only had it been used in such a way, but our enemies had used it against civilians. It shows that they have no honor, slaughtering innocent bystanders rather than taking the Dominion military as a true soldier would."

Seeing the murmurs of agreement within the crowd, the emperor continued, "Such an attack was considered among the most disgraceful acts committed against the Dominion, one that I have no intention of letting it slide away. Do not forget, it was our Dominion forces that succeeded in pushing back the Odin. Had we not succeeded, every citizen here would either be dead or a refugee. Your safety has always been top priority in the eyes of the Dominion, and I vow that James Raynor and his terrorists shall be brought to justice for all the innocent civilians they have killed here. The Dominion armada will be here at your assistance to ensure that such an incident never befalls before the city again."

At this point, one of the people in the crowd suddenly spoke up. "You keep calling James Raynor a terrorist, emperor. But we have all watched the UNN broadcasts in the aftermath of the Char invasion. Prince Valerian had spoken highly of the man and his actions."

"Such praise was meaningless," Mengsk assured him. "I admit the man had been present on Char, but it was the Dominion forces had defeated the Zerg there, Raynor did little more than stand on the sidelines and observe."

"Then how would you explain the fact that the Dominion prince had stated repeatedly to every Dominion media branch that James Raynor's actions were the reason why the Char invasion succeeded in the first place? He made it clear that the whole Dominion fleet would have been destroyed had Raynor not stepped in to take command."

"A simple matter of pride," the emperor answered. "There are certainly those within the Dominion worlds who do not see James Raynor the same way as I do. As I had stated before prior to the Zerg invasion, he represents one of the greatest dangers to the integrity of the Dominion. His only goal is to spread chaos throughout the whole sector. Don't forget, it was his actions here that had caused massed rioting across the Dominion core worlds."

"His actions here were based on something you did in the past!" another voice spoke out among the crowd, this time in an angry tone. "Even today, the news channels are still talking about how you used the Zerg to kill the whole Tarsonis population! They all want answers and you refuse to comment!"

Mengsk narrowed his eyes. "That evidence that Raynor used against me is nothing but a concoction."

"Then why hasn't anyone but you been able to falsify it?"

"You're acting as if the media branches have the same level of technology as the Dominion military does," the emperor said calmly. "That's exactly the reason why I spoke out to UNN shortly after the broadcast that I was able to falsify it. Again, I would like to remind you that the Dominion's enemies would do just about anything to ruin my reputation. It is nothing more than acts of desperation."

"Maybe not this time, emperor," a woman spoke out from the crowd. "The broadcasts that Raynor made showed that you intended to rule over the whole Koprulu Sector. Even you said no such thing about the rebel during all the four years of peace until the Zerg suddenly returned."

"Weren't you listening at all?" Mengsk said, disgusted. "That was something James Raynor concocted, it's not authentic. My position as Dominion emperor is and always has been to have the best interests of humanity at heart. I devote my time, energy, and resources to the people of the Dominion, not for some personal power gain. My goal is to ensure that humanity survives from the threat of both the Zerg and the Protoss, a complete contrast to James Raynor who cares nothing more than spreading his havoc to just about any planet he lands on."

"Devotion to the Dominion? I think not," the woman who spoke out in an angry tone suddenly stood up from the crowd and placed her hands on her hips. "Korhal is the Dominion throne world. Other than the attack from the Odin, it had not suffered the slightest bit since the Zerg invasion began."

"And that vindicates my claim that I would keep this world safe, does it not?" Mengsk replied back.

"That's not the point!" she shouted. "It's been over three months since the Odin incident! Half the city is now nothing but rubble, and more than a third of the total population here are homeless refugees living in shanties! Even those had to be hastily built from the rubble itself! Due to the Odin attack, hundreds of thousands of people are suffering! Even without the shelter problem, we still face the matter of starvation!"

Seeing how the crowd was starting to see her point, the Dominion emperor was not pleased. "And I made it clear that the Dominion resources would be here to rebuild the city to its former glory, and to help all of those in times of need."

The woman, however, showed no signs of backing down. Mengsk's eyes narrowed slightly in anger. Very few have ever dared to challenge him like this before. Clearly she had a death wish on her mind.

"The people here don't want your directives, emperor," she said firmly. "They want action, and they want it _quickly_. You can make all the promises you want, but it's not going to mean a damn thing to the people here until we actually see them implemented."

"You doubt my words and devotion?" the emperor said, frowning.

"Considering the fact that over three months have passed, I'd say the answer is obvious," the woman shot back. "We haven't received a single credit of aid, nor the slightest bit of relief from the Dominion military. After the so-called Brood War ended four years ago, you devoted Dominion tax money and revenues to modernize and beautify Korhal. As the Dominion throne world, we're supposed to be living in much more luxurious conditions compared to the Fringe Worlds, and right now half of Korhal City is nothing but a giant ghetto."

"She's not wrong there," another man stood up from the crowd. "We know you look over the Korhal capital of Augustgrad very closely, and whatever you feel can be better there you make it happen right away. Here, regardless of what you have said about your intentions, the fact remains that you haven't delivered on any, and therefore your intentions don't exactly hold any weight."

That put Mengsk in an even fouler mood. He spent the next 30 minutes rattling on about his speeches, before the crowd finally dispersed from the city square. Shaking his head in disgust, he turned around and began walking back onto the city streets and towards his heavily armored APC.

His Dominion ghost operatives and elite bodyguards accompanied him. "Sir, I don't think that went as well as we would have hoped for," one of them spoke out quietly.

The emperor snorted. "Obviously, and that's something that surprised me a bit too. I had expected thunderous applause, and all I got was a bunch of ungrateful and selfish protests."

"We could have some of them assassinated to put the others in their place," one of the ghost operatives suggested.

Mengsk nodded. "Not yet, though. As much as I hate to admit it, they were speaking from personal experience in receiving no aid. In addition I had constantly told the people here that Korhal was untouchable, and now the people are starting to doubt me. For the time being, I need to retain some measure of authority."

"The bastards here don't have the guts to riot," one of his bodyguards said. "They fear you too much for that."

"Obviously," the emperor agreed. "Still, it'd be better to put a happy face on them, if only temporarily. It'll send a message to the rest of the Dominion core worlds that the people on Korhal are all unified together under me."

"I still don't see the point of us being here," the bodyguard grumbled. "It's not like leaving Korhal City in this state is going to get you kicked off the Dominion throne."

"No, but it's still better to manipulate the people here to our will," Mengsk replied. "Now, we'll have to stay in the city for a little bit longer. We're going to the downtown financial district. It's among the places that the Odin didn't destroy, so I'll need to speak with some of the businessmen there. A few credits will get transferred just so the people of Korhal City would stop their childish whining, and that'll be the end of the matter."

* * *

**Train, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Kate finally decided it was time to break the deadlock. The silence in the train car was deafening enough to her. Time she did something about it. "I have to say this is completely unexpected," she said, looking at Raynor. "To see you here on Tarsonis is one thing, Mr. Raynor. To see that most of your soldiers are Dominion troops is quite another."

"And I take it this surprises you, Ms. Lockwell?" Jim folded his arms. "If so, you're even more narrow-minded than I thought, and it'll just confirm what I've suspected about the UNN for years, that all of you just blindly follow what you're told."

"Your troops are traitors to the Dominion," Kim accused angrily. "They're supposed to have the Dominion's best interests at heart, and instead they go siding with the most infamous terrorist the Dominion has ever known."

"How amusing," the rebel commander said calmly. "Colonel Kim, you should know things aren't always what they appear to be."

"And what do you expect us to believe?" Corbin seethed. "That they simply changed their minds? I think not, Raynor. It's pretty damn obvious that you manipulated them to do your bidding."

"You weren't there when the Char invasion took place," Jim shot back. "I was, along with my Raiders, and so were all of General Warfield's troops. Even the general himself praised me for what I did. Or are you going to turn a blind eye to that as well?"

"Mr. Raynor may have a point here," Lockwell said softly. "Prince Valerian said the same thing on UNN in the aftermath of the Char invasion."

"Which makes both him and Warfield nothing more than weak sympathizers," the public relations officer said, glaring at Raynor accusingly. "All you've ever done to the Dominion is spread chaos to everywhere we go. We try to establish some order to these worlds, and you go and mess everything up."

Jim shook his head. "It just makes you little more than mindless drones, lieutenant. All you understand is how to obey orders from above. You don't have a brain to actually _think_ about them."

"That's what separates us from you, Raynor," Corbin shot back. "We're real soldiers, trained to obey orders. You're nothing but a mercenary who goes around killing people for your own pleasure."

The rebel commander looked furious. "I am no such thing, that's your emperor. Or did you also turn a deaf ear to the Korhal broadcasts?"

"You turned a Dominion security weapon into your own toy! You used it to turn half of Korhal City to ruins!"

"And the Dominion failed to stop me," Jim replied. "I'd say that says quite well of your emperor's boasts that Korhal was so heavily fortified that no enemy of the Dominion could even come close to it."

Corbin looked furious, but Kim stopped him. "Raynor does have a point in that one, as much as I hate to admit it," she told him. "Facts don't lie, and Raynor _did_ succeed in landing on Korhal and breaching the UNN Studios' security to transmit that message. Even you can't just say that never really happened."

She looked at Raynor again. "Still, Corbin has a point of your actions. Your broadcast sent almost every Dominion core and fringe world into chaos, and many of the latter declared independence from the Dominion. It took us a lot of time and energy to stop the rioting and to regain control over the situation on the core worlds, and that's to say nothing at all about the fringe worlds."

"And you think them becoming independent of the Dominion is a bad thing," Nova said sarcastically. "You just can't stand the fact that you believed you were in perfect control over everything since the Brood War ended and now all of a sudden you're losing that control."

"You're guilty of treason too, Agent X41822N," Kim accused, but before she could say anything else, Nova unleashed psionic inertia and blasted the colonel off her seat.

"Don't call me that," Nova said dangerously. "I'm not your serial number Dominion ghost operative, not anymore. With Jim and his Raiders, I have the identity of Nova Terra again."

"So be it," Kim said, getting back up from the floor. "But the fact remains you're an even bigger traitor to the Dominion than General Warfield's troops. After the Korhal transmissions were sent, Dominion security forces did some checking up at the UNN Studios broadcasting towers. We knew for a fact that Raynor had held the security breach at the towers for as long as he did because of a ghost operative at his disposal, and it didn't take us very long before we concluded that it had to have been you."

"Which means you turned against the Dominion _long_ before the Char invasion," Corbin accused. "You sided with Raynor and his terrorists, and you had a direct hand in all the havoc that resulted on the Dominion worlds."

Kate looked stunned by this. According to the interviews she had conducted the Dominion ghost operatives on the planet Nephor II, she got the impression that they were fiercely loyal to the Dominion, and that loyalty was incapable of swaying even the slightest bit.

Nova must have picked up on her thoughts, as she smirked a little bit and turned her head to the female UNN reporter. "I'm not like the other Dominion ghosts, Ms. Lockwell. I started off very differently than they did."

"Kate, if you tried doing some digging on Nova, you would know that she was once a member of the Old Families during the days of the Confederacy," Kelerchian said. "Her family was assassinated right in front of her, and that's not a very happy beginning."

"It doesn't matter what kind of a beginning it was," Corbin spoke up again, anger in his eyes. "You did this, Raynor. You turned her against us. She was our best Dominion operative, one that never fails at any mission assigned to her, no matter what the circumstances, and now you manipulated her into doing your bidding."

Suddenly, Nova unleashed a psionic shock on the Dominion officer, and Corbin fell to the ground, unconscious. "I told you Jim," she said calmly, as if nothing happened. "These Dominion people never understand when they've gone too far when it comes to a girl's anger. Maybe now with him silent for a few hours, I won't get pushed so much."

Seeing the fear on some of the UNN journalists' faces, Nova waved it off. "Don't worry about that. None of you have exactly given me any reason to do something similar to you. I just don't like being falsely accused and such."

"Well manipulation or not, the fact remains that your actions caused her to turn on us," Kim said accusingly.

Raynor rolled his eyes. "Your Dominion Ghost Program did that, colonel. Nova told me all about the memory wipes and neural inhibitors that the Dominion used to keep its ghost operatives loyal to the Dominion. They're not human beings to you. They're just weapons, used for your assassination purposes."

Kate looked confused. "Then what did you do differently, Mr. Raynor?"

"Very simple," Jim answered. "I gave Nova a chance to make her own choices by removing the neural implants that allowed the Dominion to control her. Most Dominion ghosts have nothing but a serial number as their name, and Nova was never called by anything but Agent X41822N during her time with the Dominion. I changed all that."

"Jim acknowledged me more than you Dominion officers ever did," Nova said, looking at Kim with fire in her eyes. "I remember it all clearly, of how you never saw anything in me except my killing potential."

"And how can you remember such a thing?" Kim folded her arms. "Your memory wipes should have prevented that."

"You're not allies with the Protoss like I am," Jim stated calmly. "You know as well as I do that their technology is more advanced than ours. Just because you think Dominion technology can't reverse the effects of memory wipe doesn't mean Protoss technology can't either."

"Why did you ally yourself with the Protoss?" Kate asked, curious. "We may not be in a state of war with them, but they aren't exactly friendly to us either."

"You obviously don't know the Protoss very well," the rebel commander answered. "The Dominion's list of enemies is so long I could go on for years trying to list every single one." He shook his head in disappointment. "I expected something like this out of you. You UNN reporters are nothing but the Dominion's personal puppets, and since the Dominion has arrogantly convinced itself that the Protoss are nothing but monsters, you simply swallow everything the Dominion propagandists say."

"I used to believe that of what the Dominion had said," Nova added. "But I fought alongside the Protoss with the Raiders, and they're nothing like what the Dominion have claimed them to be."

Kate did kind of expect this answer from Raynor. "You clearly do not know me very well, Mr. Raynor. Didn't you ever watch any of my UNN news reports?"

"Of course I have, and almost every single of one them are supportive of the Dominion," Jim was not swayed the slightest bit.

"Call it that if you wish, but if you really paid attention, you'd notice that I also never called you a criminal or terrorist or anything like that," Kate defended. "There were times where I did try to speak highly of you and your Raiders for your actions and such, but Donny Vermillion kept cutting me off."

Jim thought about this for a moment. He recalled back to when Kerrigan had attacked the Tyrador VIII in order to access the Möebius Foundation's data cores and locate the Xel'Naga artifact fragments. Thinking back, he remembered that Kate Lockwell did try to that Dr. Emil Narud had praised him and his Raiders for his actions, but was then cut off.

Similarly, after being forced to burn out the Zerg infestation on Meinhoff, the female reporter had said of the refugees pinning their hopes on him and his Raiders for rescue. The same was true after he and his Raiders saved Dr. Hanson's people on Haven, where Kate also announced that the refugees had praised him for his actions.

Even before the Zerg invasion began, when he kicked up his revolution against Mengsk again on Mar Sara, she had tried to report that the people of Mar Sara were pleased with his actions, and not that of the Dominion military.

Especially true was in the case in the immediate aftermath of the Korhal broadcasts, where she had reported that the citizens of Korhal were setting fire to Dominion government buildings after he had exposed Mengsk's true nature. After encountering with the hybrid at the Castanar installation, he recalled Lockwell said that she intended to determine the corruption in the Dominion government and how high up it goes, but was shut down by Dominion security.

Nova picked up on his thoughts, and turned her head to him. "Jim, remember the person you are. You should consider what she has to say. Don't forget, when I first joined up with the Raiders, you were the only one who was willing to give me a chance to prove myself. Everybody else on the ship weren't too uncomfortable with a Dominion ghost fighting alongside you."

Raynor looked slightly torn. "I know that, Nova. But the media is a weapon in its own right. Mengsk used it to portray me as a terrorist for years, and it certainly had that effect on people. And you saw the effect it had after what happened on Korhal. That broadcast was a major success against Mengsk, and the last thing I want is for that to get reversed."

Colonel Kim clenched her fist in anger. "Success against the emperor? Your broadcast wreaked havoc on the Dominion people, Raynor. Thank to all the rioting and such, the casualties were in the tens of thousands, and you didn't even blink."

"Yeah well let's get one thing straight here," Jim shot back. "Before I made the broadcasts on Korhal, your emperor had the whole media under his control, along with military industry, constabulary, and penal system. When you're dealing with a situation like that, the only way to go is through violent action, not just useless civil method of court and law. As the emperor, he _is_ the law, which means nothing I say in there would have made a difference."

He lowered his voice before turning his head to Kate. "Tell me something then, Ms. Lockwell. Am I really supposed to believe if you hadn't been cut off in your news reports, you actually would have praised me and my actions?"

"Be realistic, Mr. Raynor," Lockwell replied. "The Dominion hadn't given any reports on their actions about saving people from the Zerg during their invasion, pushing the Zerg back, or even any signs of stopping the Zerg attacks. I'm not the type of reporter to just make news up. So who else would there be to report if not you?"

"I am being realistic," the commander insisted. "One of your news reports you had said that the Dominion military analysts were confused that the Zerg advance had slowed down, and your former boss Donny praised the Dominion right away for taking the fight to the Zerg."

"Not all of us blindly believe things like that," the UNN anchorwoman assured him. "Having had no news of Dominion military success against the Zerg invasion, let's just say I was skeptical about that one."

"Fine, but either way, if you hadn't been cut off and you were allowed to proceed with your news report in praising me, the Dominion would have immediately branded you a traitor."

"This just shows how little you know of the Dominion, Raynor. Not to mention your desire for self glory," Kim spoke up again. "You honestly think we're all demons from hell or something? Well I've got news for you: you and your Raiders aren't the only ones in the universe with friends, family, and kids."

"You're certainly right about the part with family and such," Jim agreed. "But for how little I know of the Dominion, it just shows you being too naïve. Of all the UNN reports I've seen, there has not been a single one that in the pro category that didn't have the Dominion in its name. Not to mention the fact that every single report has been told from the Dominion perspective, everyone else's viewpoints are either ignored or dismissed."

"That's going to change now that Donny is no longer in charge," Kate explained. "Mr. Raynor, please. I know you have no reason to trust me, or even to like me, especially after all the years of Dominion propaganda of portraying you the most despicable terrorist in the Koprulu Sector. But all of that was only due to UNN censorship due to the upper UNN people loyal to the Dominion. I admit in many of those cases, that loyalty turned out to be blind, which was certainly not a good thing. But I'm nothing like them. I know that there are multiple sides to the story, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Regardless of what the Dominion's side of the story is, it's only part of the picture."

"So what do you hope to accomplish here?"

"Call it a new beginning," Lockwell said. "In the aftermath of the Char invasion and Prince Valerian had praised you for your actions there, I made it clear that UNN will no longer fully support everything the Dominion has to say and investigate other people's perspectives. I made it clear in my news reports that there are now doubts if you truly are the terrorist that Mengsk claimed you are for so long. Other media branches have begun to question this as well. With you here on Tarsonis, it'd be the perfect way to see things from your perspective, instead of just hearing it from a bunch of people who barely even know you."

Obviously Kim was not supportive of this. "Ms. Lockwell, have you completely overlooked the fact that Raynor tried to kill you when we entered Tarsonis City? He and his troops were the ones giving off the sniper fire that killed some of my boys!"

"I wasn't aiming at the UNN reporters," Raynor scoffed. "Contrary to your propaganda, I'm not some coldblooded killer who targets innocent bystanders just for the hell of it."

"That's my point exactly," Kate told the Dominion colonel. "I'm interested in finding out the truth, and if that means I have to speak to non-Dominion factions to make it happen, then that's the way it has to be."

She turned her head back to Jim. "So what will it be, Mr. Raynor? Your ghost friend here just said that you gave her a chance when no one else was willing to trust her."

Jim looked at Nova, then at Mal. Both of them had remained silent, but from the look on their faces, their answer was self explanatory.

He let out a sigh. "All right, Ms. Lockwell. I'll give your style a chance. I admit during the UNN broadcasts, you certainly didn't seem to buy Mengsk's claims about me or anything of that propaganda crap, so I'm interested in hearing your side of all this as well."

* * *

**Toxic Slums, Dead Man's Rock**

Mira listened as the reports of the assault on the Dominion base came in. Some of which she did not have to hear it, she could see it with her own eyes from the bridge of the Heavy Transport ship close to the frontlines. Unlike her husband Matthew who had returned to the Hyperion, she knew that it was certainly wise to lead the troops from afar to put herself out of danger. If she got killed, the troops' morale could plummet.

Unfortunately, this was not an option with the forces under her command. Mercenaries or not, there was an obvious difference between her troops and that of the Raiders. The latter comprised of people who wanted to seek justice against the Dominion and to ensure freedom to the Koprulu Sector. On the other hand, all the mercenaries she commanded had no intention of fighting for such a cause. Ultimately, they were fighting for little more than themselves. Other than the signing of the paycheck in credits or minerals, everything else didn't matter to them. Given that, in rough times like these, only a loyalty to each other and their commander could hold them together.

This was exactly the reason she had to position herself right on the battlefield, in harm's way. Her troops needed to know that she wasn't just going to sit back while they took all the risks while she did absolutely nothing. She had to make her presence felt so that they would be convinced that she would fight alongside them if the situation got out of control.

So far, the reports have no indicated that, but it didn't make the going any easier either. As promised, the Raiders were providing the fire support to keep the Dominion BattleCruisers busy. Neither side had that many BattleCruisers, and that kept the battle relatively even. Fortunately, the Hyperion itself was once Mengsk's flagship during his days with the Sons of Korhal, and that meant that it had greater armor and firepower than the average BattleCruiser. That kept all of the Dominion BattleCruisers busy while the mammoth ships fought one another in the skies above.

The other air battles were still being fought to a standstill. Having underestimated the number of Grizzly fighter-bombers, many of the Kel-Morian Hellhounds had to be diverted away from assisting the ground troops to deal with them. Due to the Hellhounds' weak armor, it did not take many shots from the Grizzlies' 30mm Hellsworn flak cannons to shoot them down, and that led to frequent requests for Wraith support.

Even so, it did keep most of the Grizzlies busy and distracted from performing their standard role of bombing the troops on the ground, though the ones that were able to still caused terrible damage there. The marines, Marauders, and Firebats were no match for their bombs, and many were blown to pieces before they had a chance to fire a single shot.

The Raiders' Vikings had increased their activity greatly, and this had prevented the Dominion Banshees from unleashing their payload on the Thor walkers. The mechanical behemoths pressed forward on the ground, in many cases through areas that Dominion Vultures had planted Spider Mines on. Fortunately, with their thick and heavy armor, the Thors were able to take such an explosive blast, and that spared the lives of the foot soldiers. There were of course cases where even they were forced to retreat for repairs, and Mira gave orders that the Raiders' Thors must be protected so that they would be able to go up against the Dominion Thors in the base.

The Confederate Avengers had made numerous bombing runs at the base already, in many cases in an attempt to blast the Dominion Thor walkers due to their less effective anti-air defenses. Unfortunately, it had only resulted in dozens of Avengers having been shot out of the sky by the Missile Turrets and Goliaths. Very soon, such bombing runs had to be abandoned as it simply couldn't produce the necessary results, and both the Raiders and the mercenaries concluded that it should be left to the Siege Tanks instead.

That, however, proved to be no easy task. With so many artificial mounds still intact, the Siege Tanks had great difficulty in maneuvering through the terrain, and the number of Raider Dropships and mercenary Planet Hoppers and Heavy Landers were too few in number to get the tanks across the battlefield quickly. The Giant-class cargo ships had been considered, but they had no armor plating at all, which made them too vulnerable to attack.

Her mercenary troops on the ground were also suffering from the toxicity effects due to all the toxic and radioactive canisters the Dominion had positioned in the area. The Raiders troops were still pressing forward, but more and more of the mercenary troops were starting to lag behind as the harmful chemicals leaked through their CMC armor and the effects were becoming accumulative.

This had also made them vulnerable targets to Dominion Stinger jeeps, as their 35mm cannons cut down dozens of War Pigs, Hammer Securities, and Devil Dogs before the Goliaths were able to get within range and provide adequate fire support.

All in all, the situation was still manageable, but the casualties taken were becoming more and more appalling by the minute. Despite her orders to continue the assault, Mira could tell that many of her mercenary troops were starting to lose confidence of making it out of here alive.

"Commander, we're receiving a transmission," one of her officers suddenly reported.

"Open a channel," Mira said. The faces that appeared on the screen surprised her.

"So it looks like you were crazy enough to attack the Dominion base after all, Mira," one of the mercenary leaders spoke out.

"I made it clear to my troops that the attack would proceed as ordered, and that once it began, it's not going to stop until the whole base got leveled," she answered.

"And even after all the casualties you're taking, I'm surprised your troops haven't mutinied yet," another observed.

Mira gritted her teeth. They haven't yet, but unless the situation improved, that certainly might happen. However, she had no intention of showing that to the mercenary leaders here.

"Did you contact me just to taunt?" she said, not pleased. "Or did you consider what I said?"

"We have," another mercenary leader answered. "We're not going to have to take all the glory yourself in defeating the Dominion here. Our forces will be arriving in the area within minutes."

Mira smiled. Finally, some good news. "Very well, I will be waiting for them here. When they reach the Toxic Slums, I expect each and every one of your pilots and soldiers to unleash hell on the Dominion."


	73. Chapter 73

**Author's Note: Today makes 2 and a half years since WoL's release, I thought it'd be the day to update the fic again.**

**Blackhole1, when you had asked why wasn't Korhal City repaired, as it should have been a blow to Mengsk's reputation, it'll be revealed in future chapters. This chapter will give you some insight to Mengsk's thinking on his own people.  
**

**As always, please read and review and I'll see you guys next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 73

**Financial District, Korhal City, Korhal**

Arcturus Mengsk stepped out of the elevator and walked down the corridor of the financial district building. Like the parts of Korhal City that survived unscathed from the Odin attacks, the place had been lavishly decorated, though nowhere near to the point when compared to the Korhal Palace in Augustgrad. It may be grand and vast, but that's certainly a necessity when so many of the city's business deals had to pass through here.

Besides him, Dominion ghost operatives cloaked and were on the alert in the event of assassins. It was standard security, after all. Everyone knew that outside of the Korhal capital city, the emperor was more vulnerable and therefore greater security measures were necessary. His elite bodyguards too had their fingers ready on the triggers, and the overall atmosphere was extremely tense, giving the impression that Mengsk was untouchable when surrounded by them.

Of course the Dominion emperor himself wasn't too worried about such acts of assassination. Only one such event had occurred, and that was back in 2503 when the Spectre Gabriel Tosh had attacked the Korhal Palace in Augustgrad. In the end, they had failed, stopped by his finest ghost operative, Agent X41822N. As for Korhal City, although Raynor had already penetrated the defenses here once, even he would be a fool to think he could accomplish it again, Odin or not.

Two of his bodyguards opened the door to the massive conference room, revealing a long and expensively lavished table with the Korhal City businessmen sitting around it. Some of them were company CEOs, others were only financial officers. Still more were high ranking construction personnel, an obvious sight given the extent of the damage done to the city by the Odin, and something that Mengsk had seen coming well over a mile away. And finally, the city's mayor was there, and the emperor had no doubt that he would want some new regarding the relief efforts that had been promised.

Their chairs were made of elegantly lavished redwood, highly polished that they caught the reflective light from the ceiling. There were of course still inferior compared to the ones in the Korhal palace that were made of precious metals, but nevertheless they're of high quality here.

In a similar fashion, the table itself was not ridden with gold and decorations that befit the situation in the Korhal Palace in Augustgrad. Instead, all of the businessmen had their portable computers out and had their eyes glued to the screen, no doubt looking over the effects the devastation wreaked on Korhal City and how it would affect the citizens there, both in the short run as well as the long run. Mengsk could see that some of the company CEOs owned companies elsewhere on Korhal, and it was obvious that they too needed to know how the Korhal City incident would affect their overall business empire.

"Greetings, gentlemen," the Dominion emperor declared, stepping towards the table and sitting down on the massive and most elegantly lavished chair, reserved obviously for him and him alone.

Everyone else at the table stood up and bowed. "We're honored by your presence here, emperor," one of them announced. "I only wish it could have been under more favorable circumstances, but as you can clearly see, Korhal City isn't doing so well in the aftermath of the Odin attacks, not after what Jim Raynor did here."

"I had more than enough of the citizens out there reminding me the same thing," Mengsk replied. "My troops had to hold them back as they tried to swamp over me, pleading for Dominion resources in relief."

"It's to be expected," another spoke up. "This place may not be as prosperous as Augustgrad, but there's the fair share of the wealthy people here as well. In the four years that Korhal had been modernized and beautified, they got used to living in grandiose style and a state of luxury. Once that happens, well let's just say it gets a little _way_ too addictive. Trying to take something away from them would be the equivalent of removing an arm off their body. They'd never give it up. Suffice to say, when the Odin went on a rampage and leveled half the city, quite a lot of their business investments were leveled with it. That, along with their luxury apartments, penthouses, and condos. For quite a few of them, they lost nearly everything right there."

"So how are they coping with it?" the emperor asked.

"A few couldn't at all," one of the CEOs answered. "In the days and weeks following what happened here, there have been reports of such wealthy people committing suicide by jumping off the remaining skyscrapers in the city, putting a bullet through their brains, or swallowing cyanide pills. To have lived for so long in a life of luxury and then to suddenly have it all taken from you, well it was just too much for them to handle. They felt their lives were going down the drain and there was nothing they could do to prevent it. Given the fact that virtually all the ones who committed suicide would have had to file for complete bankruptcy, I'm sure you can put the pieces together."

Mengsk nodded. Not that he cared one bit for such people, but it was good to know. It would give him the opportunity to increase his influence over Korhal City even more with such scumbags out of the way. "What about the ones who didn't take the cowardly way out?" he asked. "How are they handling the situation?"

"Quite a number of them are getting closer and closer to that point with every passing day," came the reply. "There are those that still had some of their condos to take refuge in to avoid the crowd, but it's only providing temporary relief. The Odin had leveled quite a number of the manufacturing plants in the city. As I'm sure you're aware, all of them build weapons for the Dominion military, but rather of recreational use. Some of the plants manufacture hovercars, yachts, and private shuttles, and so forth. The wealthy people have had the vast majority of their money tied up in those places, in some cases _all_ of their money. It's a complete contrast to us who have our money tied up in multiple companies on Korhal, and even ones on other Dominion core worlds, so the Odin attack is only a temporary setback. On the other hand, because they had gambled everything on the manufacturing plants here in Korhal City, they've now lost _everything_, and don't have a single credit left in their pockets."

"So what are they doing now?"

"Many of them have been forced to take to the streets with the rest of the homeless. A select few are the lucky ones, having associated with the city's residents on more than a few occasions. Some even offered help to the people in times of need. For them, they were recognized very quickly and the homeless people are now doing what they can to accommodate them in their makeshift shanties, offering them whatever food, water, and spare clothing they still have left. It's not much, but it gives them a sense of belonging and everything. If nothing else, at least they know that they aren't completely on their own after the whole city went to hell."

"And the others?" Mengsk asked.

"They're in their personal hell," another spoke up from the table. "Those people never did anything to integrate with the civilian population, and always thought about what directly affected their own personal and physical well-being first. It's a complete disregard for the common people."

Even as he spoke those words, Mengsk could sense the tension from his voice. It seemed as if the man was hinting somewhat at him, and for not helping out the people of Korhal City as the people had expected him to.

"Now the shoe is on the other foot," the man continued. "For those people, the civilians are treating them with complete contempt and disgust. Most expressed satisfaction to see that the mighty had fallen, that they have gone from one of the wealthiest people in the city to mere beggars in rags. They couldn't do anything about it anymore, since the civilians are telling the truth, and that they're completely ruined. It's creating a level of despair they have never experienced in their lives before, and many are having trouble trying to adjust to this. At least during their wealthy days, they could avoid the anger from the public, out of sight, out of mind. Now, there's no such option."

"I'm not surprised," the emperor said, placing his hands on the table. "But at least they're getting a taste of life like the other civilians in the city, now that they no longer have their luxuries with them everywhere they go."

"The refugee situation is still steadily deteriorating, emperor," the city's mayor said, speaking up for the first time since Mengsk entered the room. "The city's supply levels in food, fuel, and other resources are all running very low."

Mengsk rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you people never bothered to prepare in the event of an emergency, mayor."

"With all due respect emperor, you stated for years that Korhal would be untouchable by the enemies of the Dominion, that no one would have the nerve to even _think_ of attacking," the mayor replied. "Everyone believed you, especially given all the Dominion resources that have been poured into fortifying the planet, which you claimed repeatedly to be the Dominion's strongest fortress. I don't think people had considered the possibility that anyone would have _really_ attacked Korhal."

The emperor shook his head. "Well that still doesn't explain why the city's supplies are becoming so low."

"As you're aware, the Odin walker had been intended to be displayed right in the city square. The inhabitants had been informed of this, along with the Dominion military presence for this event. Given the fact that the original plan was for the military to stay in Korhal City for a few days, the local authorities had made the logistical preparations for feeding the military and supplying it with the vespene gas needed to keep its vehicles running."

Mengsk nodded, taking it all in.

"Combined with the fact that you had stated for so long that Korhal would be untouchable, all of those food and fuel supply depots were moved out into the open for easier access. Therefore, when the Odin went rogue and turned on the Dominion forces, those supply dumps became easy targets for the heavy walker. Despite our best efforts, the vast majority of those dumps were quickly destroyed, either by the Odin or by James Raynor's Raiders. Only a very small fraction had been saved, and this isn't enough to deal with the hundreds of thousands of suffering people in the city ruins."

Seeing that the emperor wanted him to continue, the mayor went on, "The homeless are now reduced to burning waste in garbage cans just to start a fire so they can keep themselves warm at night. The local police authorities are having their hands full trying to maintain order as the Odin attacks had taken a heavy toll on their numbers too. Quite simply, there aren't enough to prevent the widespread of chaos that's been steadily increasing due to all the food supply shortages. The reports keep coming in about the people on the streets are constantly fighting each other over loaves of bread. Hell, sometimes it gets so desperate that people are killing one another over just a few _slices_ of bread. Bakeries are being constantly targeted as there have been more and more incidents where the homeless are just smashing the windows down and taking the food. The same is true for the vespene tanker trucks, where people have been raiding them to get the fuel necessary for whatever vehicles they have."

He took a deep breath before continuing, "Since these raids are starting to increase in intensity, it also means that the number of casualties have been steadily increasing as well. This makes the situation even worse since the Odin attacks have also destroyed most of Korhal City's hospitals. For the ones that remain, the hospital personnel are starting to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of wounded that have been pouring in. In some cases, the doctors have been forced to treat patients out in the parking lots because the hospital wings themselves are becoming too overcrowded. To make matters worse, the hospitals' medical supplies are also starting to run low, as they too have been the target of raiders. They realize that they're going to need to get their hands on all the meds they can grab because there's no longer a guarantee that they could get treated at a hospital in case they suffer serious injuries."

"So what are you asking of me?" the emperor folded his arms. He was not liking this at all.

"Given the shortages of food, fuel, and med supplies, in the short run those will be vital in order to keep the city from spiraling completely out of control," the mayor answered. "I ran over the logistics with some of my boys. According to their calculations, the inhabitants are going to need 25,000 tons of supplies a day for at least a month. The local authorities can take care of the job of distributing the supplies to the people who need it the most in order to prevent the rioting and raiding from getting even worse."

"And in the long run?"

"The attack by James Raynor using the Odin heavy walker had caused the city terrible damage, and it'll take months to have everything rebuilt. In terms of the money necessary, my boys estimate that the damage done had caused nearly 300 billion worth of credits. That's how much the city is going to need to restore it back to the glorious way it once was."

The mayor looked directly at Mengsk in the eye. "Emperor, please help my people. I know you have a responsibility to the whole of the Dominion, which is a hell of a lot more than my responsibility to Korhal City, but the situation here is critical. The whole city is sitting on one giant powder keg, and unless relief comes immediately, I guarantee you that the keg will go off. As I've stated before, the local authorities simply cannot handle it if that occurs, and the whole city will erupt into total anarchy. I'm doing everything in my power to ensure that won't happen, but without any relief supplies or military aid, my options are somewhat limited right now. If the inhabitants here get the impression that they're completely on their own, I'll lose whatever control I've still got left. The backlashes will be far worse compared to the rioting on other Dominion core worlds in the immediate aftermath of the Korhal broadcasts."

He then turned his head to the business CEOs at the meeting table. "You guys can argue all you want about making profits and all that, but that's not what's important here. Granted, there will be the money to be made once the Dominion aid comes and relief efforts begin, but right now the focus is saving the lives of people. Public and private property takes a backseat compared to that, as well as making a profit for yourselves."

Mengsk sighed. "All right, you've stated your requests. Given how the people here had said the same thing to me about Dominion aid when I was addressing them in the city square, even I can't deny the situation is anything but bad."

He pushed himself out of his chair. "If you'll excuse me, this is something I must discuss with my associates, and it must be done alone."

Everyone in the conference room gave nods of understanding, and one by one the Korhal City mayor, business CEOs, financial officers, and construction personnel stood up from the massive meeting table. One by one they turned to the door and left, leaving the Dominion emperor alone in the room with only his elite bodyguards.

* * *

**Toxic Slums, Dead Man's Rock**

Bullet casings clattered to the ground as Raiders and mercenaries continued to push forward towards the Dominion base entrance. Sarah led the way with one of the squads, channeling her psionic powers and forming a barrier to prevent the Spider Mines from getting within proximity of the ground troops and detonating.

She telekinetically picked one up and hurled it at one of the bipedal Hellions. The explosion that resulted caused its fuel tanks to rupture, and the vehicle was engulfed in flames. The hatch opened, as the driver tried to jump out and escape, only to be cut down by the bullets of nearby marines.

"Franklin, come in," Kerrigan said, tapping her comm-link. "What the hell are these things? They look like Hellion vehicles, but they're bipedal for some odd reason. One of the Dominion's new toys?"

"You got me," came the reply. "All I know is that Dominion troops were not too pleased with the performance of the Hellion because their armor was too weak to withstand much when it came to fighting the Zerg. They may be fast, but the Zerg always have the overwhelming numbers advantage. Rumor had it that the Dominion was planning to improve the Hellion in a way to make it more effective on the battlefield, though no one seemed to know anything more than that."

The red haired ghost channeled her psionic powers and jammed the rifles of nearby Dominion marines, before squeezing the trigger on her C-20 Canister Rifle and cutting them down. A nearby Firebat spotted her and unleashed fire from the Perdition Flamethrowers, but Sarah unleashed her pyrokinesis ability and redirected the flame away from her. Seeing the moment of opportunity, a nearby Marauder fired a punisher grenade right into the Firebat, causing the man to explode in a fireball.

In the air, one of the Dominion Grizzlies suddenly swooped down onto their position. "Get to cover!" Sarah shouted. "I'll handle this!"

The Grizzly dropped its bomb payload, sending it plummeting towards her. But again, she used her telekinesis to stop the bombs in midair, before hurling it towards a Dominion Stinger jeep and blowing it apart.

Hammer Securities Marauders moved past her, firing their mediator grenades at Dominion Vultures. Cloaking, Kerrigan sprinted forward and unleashed a psychic attack, as Dominion Reapers fell to the ground screaming from the pain, before their minds were permanently shut down.

A Dominion Banshee who happened to be near a Raven managed to detect her, and unleashed its backlash rockets. But to the pilot's surprise, the female ghost formed a psionic barrier around her that stopped the missiles dead in their tracks. Before he had a chance to do anything else, Kerrigan unleashed a psionic storm and sent the Banshee plummeting from the sky, before hurling the suspended rockets at nearby Goliath walkers and sending five of them toppling to the ground.

Other Goliath walkers immediately switched their fire to her position, but Sarah was already prepared. Taking aim, she fired from her rifle right towards their cockpits. True to her crack shot ability, the bullets went right through and killed the pilots. One of them was fortunate enough to swerve his walker aside, but Kerrigan took advantage of this and sprinted forward, jumping onto the Goliath walker.

Using her telekinesis, she yanked the cockpit cover right off, exposing the pilot, before reaching down with her arm and throwing the Goliath pilot out, where he was greeted by a wall of fire from mercenary Devil Dog Firebats.

Suddenly, a massive explosion knocked her off her feet, as she saw one of the mercenary Sloth bulldozers explode in a fireball. Sarah turned her head to see that in the distance, Dominion Siege Tanks were moving into position. Some of them already were, their shock cannons beginning to shell the battlefield.

The mercenary Saber vehicles charged forward, their gauss cannons blazing, but this served only to cut down the Dominion marines. The Siege Tanks themselves were relatively unharmed, while the Sabers easily succumbed to the laser fire of Dominion Wraiths flying overhead.

Unleashing another psionic storm, Sarah directed this one to the flyers up ahead. While a few were able to dodge out of the way, enough Wraiths were knocked out of the sky to allow the mercenary Avengers to move forward and unleash their payload from their rocket pods. Dominion marines and Goliaths put up a desperate wall of lead, but many were forced to retreat as the sheer firepower overwhelmed them.

More and more of the Medivac Dropships were moved into the area, and medics had their hands full dealing with the wounded, both Raider and mercenary. The lightly wounded were quickly patched up and sent right back onto the battlefield, while the ones with heavier injuries had to be evacuated from the area.

Fortunately, by now the other mercenary troops on Dead Man's Rock were already fighting alongside the Raiders and Mira's forces, and the numbers had turned in their favor. Kerrigan smiled at the thought to see that everyone on the planet was fighting the Dominion, fighting for their independence. It brought back memories of her Sons of Korhal days with Jim, where the two of them dreamed of a Koprulu Sector free of tyranny.

Still firing from her rifle, more and more Dominion marines, Reapers, and Marauders were being cut down by the sheer amount of fire, while others continued to retreat towards the base entrance. The Raiders' Thors by now were less than a mile away from artillery range, and Sarah knew that the Dominion bunkers at the entrance stood no chance of surviving such a barrage.

"We're just about clear of the toxic area," one of the mercenary officers next to her announced. "With the other mercenaries fighting alongside us, we've got more reinforcements inbound."

"Good," she said. "Remember, once we breach the base entrance, _don't_ go leveling everything you see, at least not yet. We don't know just where the nuclear warheads are, and any stray explosion might end up setting them off."

"The other mercs already know about the nuke threat," he assured. "They'll be sure to handle this in a delicate manner."

Sarah's comm-link then beeped. "Kerrigan, Dominion activity in the base is increasing," Franklin reported. "The flyboys are reporting increased transport activity."

"Could they be trying to move the nukes?" she asked.

"Can't tell," came the reply. "All I know is that some of the Dominion trucks are being loaded onto Dropships, and they're ready for takeoff. They may be evacuating the base as we speak."

"We can't take that chance," she told him. "Until the warheads are taken care of, it's too risky to assume anything."

"We'll deal the Dominion scumbags," one of the mercenary marines beside her said. "You just get into the waste processing facility and do your part. Once you're done with the nukes, we'll handle the rest."

* * *

**Train, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

"I'm going have to agree with Raynor on this one," Mal said, looking at the female UNN reporter. "I watched a few of your reports myself on UNN. Despite them being pro-Dominion, it seems you didn't exactly buy the emperor's claims of Raynor being a terrorist who wanted nothing more than to spread chaos to every world. The tone you gave for these broadcasts seemed skeptical, even before the recent Zerg invasion got off the ground."

Kate gave the wrangler a slight nod. "Contrary to what you may think, reporters do what they can to find out the truth, not just turn a blind eye and accept whatever they're told. Even in cases where we're physically at the scene, some of us are smart enough to know there may be more than what meets the eye."

Nova frowned in confusion. "If that's true, why didn't you make any attempt to tell anyone?"

"The Dominion keeps very careful tabs on what people say," Lockwell answered. "I wouldn't expect you to understand this because as a ghost operative, all you do is listen to a superior order and then carry it out, no questions asked, no thinking allowed."

"That's not how it works in my Raiders," Jim said, seeing Nova frown even deeper. "I may have ghosts as well, but they're treated as actual _people_, instead of just weapons and a means to an end. I don't have an expectation for anyone under me to just blindly obey without even the slightest bit of explanation to it all."

He turned his head to Kim. "You can deny it all you want, but answer me this: if your claims are true are Dominion ghosts are still people to you, why are they never called by anything except for their agent serial numbers? Nova told me that despite their memory wipes, Dominion ghosts still remember their real names, they just don't go by it."

"They're used for the Dominion's special missions," the colonel said calmly. "It's better not to give out their real names. That way, the Dominion's enemies won't be able to track them down so easily."

Nova's eyes darkened in anger. "Special missions? Almost half the missions I was assigned to were nothing more than pure assassination!" she shouted. "Jim helped me recover my memories, and I remember killing Dominion targets right in front of their families!"

"You said it yourself that the Dominion people are not demons, Kim," Raynor told the Dominion colonel. "Am I supposed to believe you're not supposed to feel anything from that?"

Kim let out a sigh. "Ok fine, so the Dominion personnel in charge of the Ghost Program are a little more cold-hearted than they should be. The point is they still have the Dominion's best intentions at heart."

"So you deluded yourself into believing," Nova shot back. "As ghost agents, we were meant for only one thing: to serve the Dominion without question to the very end. Whatever goals, dreams, family, friendship, and things like that were removed due to the memory wipes, and only loyalty to the emperor was what mattered."

"Even you have to admit by now that Mengsk is not the savior of humanity as he claimed himself to be for all these years," Jim added. "Or have you learned nothing from the Korhal broadcasts?"

The Dominion colonel sighed. "Mengsk is far from perfect, I'll give you that much, but your revolution hasn't exactly earned yourself a good reputation either, Raynor."

"He has to the Dominion Fringe Worlds who praised him for saving them from the Zerg," Kate pointed out. "I heard it from them myself, but due to the censorship, I just wasn't able to say it to the public."

"Which brings me back to my original question," Mal said. "You're not like the others, Ms. Lockwell. You don't seem to be convinced about the emperor's claims regarding Raynor. Care to tell us why?"

The UNN reporter looked at Kim, before shifting her eyes to the wrangler. She seemed hesitant on what she's going to say, especially since other than Raynor, everyone else around her were either Dominion or formerly Dominion soldiers.

Finally, she decided to take the risk. "Mr. Raynor, what do you know about the reporter Michael Liberty?"

Jim's head perked up slightly at the mention of his name. "He and I met a few years back during the days when the Confederacy was still around. Two of us worked under Mengsk back then."

Now Kate suddenly looked confused. "Wait, you and the emperor were once on the same side?"

"Before Mengsk became the Dominion emperor, he was the leader of the rebel group known as the Sons of Korhal," Jim explained. "As I'm sure you know, that group was formed after the Confederacy blasted Korhal with 1000 Apocalypse-class nuclear missiles and turned the whole planet into a radioactive wasteland. A lot of people were not pleased with the Confederacy for doing that, and it increased the list of rebels against them even more."

"I know about how the Sons of Korhal came to be, Mr. Raynor," Lockwell replied. "I just don't know how you fit into all this."

"I was only a marshal on Mar Sara back then," the rebel commander said. "When the Zerg came, the Confederacy wouldn't help the people there. Only the Sons of Korhal did, and I joined Mengsk's cause because I had believed he would be a force for change, to bring the Confederacy down once and for all. However, by the time of Tarsonis and him using the Zerg to kill the whole population, that's when he crossed the line. When he told me that I must remain loyal and obedient to him once he rules over the sector, it just confirmed that he was every bit as rotten and corrupt as the Confederacy ever was."

Beside him, Nova nodded in agreement. "Jim told me that during his days with the Sons of Korhal, he had hoped that once the Confederacy is eliminated, the people they enslaved would finally be freed. In particular would be the ghosts, since the Confederacy saw them as nothing but weapons. But when Mengsk formed the Dominion, he kept the Ghost Program. We were still only seen as weapons. That meant by having the Confederacy switched over to the Dominion, the corruption didn't go away, it just got changed from one form to another."

Kate nodded slowly, trying to take this all in.

"All right, I've explained my part with the Sons of Korhal," Jim said. "Now it's your turn. What do you know about Michael Liberty?"

"When the Dominion was first formed, very little," Lockwell answered. "All I knew was that he was once friends with the emperor, but then their relationship fell apart. Of course now that I've heard what you told me about the Sons of Korhal, I can see why."

"But you know more about him even _before_ I told you about the Sons of Korhal," Jim insisted. "What was it?"

"This goes back one of the anniversaries of the Dominion, Mr. Raynor. In the year 2502, I was aboard the Dominion BattleCruiser Victory, where I was chosen for an assignment. Apparently the Dominion disliked reporters due to what Mr. Liberty had done, not that I knew exactly what that was at the time. One of the officers aboard the ship, Major Tom Hawkins, wanted me to tell the story the way the Dominion Marine Corps would see them."

"And what happened?" Nova asked.

"One of my cameramen was a man named Zach Oliver," Kate explained. "He and I worked together worked together for 5 years, but then I fired him for conspiracy theories. We landed on a planet called Candore, a Dominion colony world. Because there was nothing to report, he and I snuck into the BattleCruiser's brig, where we discovered a huge pile of terran corpses, including women and children. We also intercepted a transmission from Michael Liberty, saying that the Candore colony simply vanished."

She took a breath before continuing, "When Major Hawkins found out, he had both me and Oliver arrested. Because he knew that Oliver had taken hard copies of the footage and gave them to me, he threatened to throw Oliver out the airlock unless I gave it up to him." She shook her head in disgust. "In the end, Hawkins threw him out the airlock anyway, not to mention tried to kill me by shooting me in the shoulder."

Mal was horrified. "How did you get away?"

"Michael Liberty saved me," Kate answered. "He was part of an organization called the Knights of Freedom and against the Dominion. The Knights of Freedom killed Hawkins, then explained that the reason the Dominion had killed all those people on Candore was because they believed the Candore colonists were sheltering the Knights of Freedom organization. It left me very confused as to who to believe, but it was then that I knew the Dominion was far from perfect. Killing women and children simply because they disagreed with the Dominion's point of view certainly did not sit well with me. Mengsk had constantly talked about freedom and liberty, but what I on Candore was only dictatorship."

"But you stayed with the Dominion anyway," Jim said.

"I needed to understand if everyone in the Dominion was as sadistic as Hawkins, or if he was just one of the few psychos. He had accused me of being a traitor to the Dominion, but I pointed out to him that apparently the Dominion did not have the best intentions at heart as everyone had been led to believe. In either case I didn't turn a blind eye to what happened back then. Oliver had made two hard copies of the footage of corpses of the Candore colonists. I had allowed myself to get captured by the Dominion marines and turned one over to them. The other one I gave to Mr. Liberty and the Knights of Freedom."

Kim looked angry. "You gave an anti-Dominion organization such information?"

"I could never have broadcasted such a thing with all the censorship," Lockwell answered. "I'm a reporter, and it's our job to find out the truth. I don't go about blindly listening to whatever the Dominion tells me without so much as giving it a second thought."

"She has you there, Kim," Raynor pointed out. "You can say all you want about you being a Dominion soldier and being trained to obey orders, but that doesn't stop the thought process altogether. In addition you can argue about superior orders can't be questioned, but that doesn't mean you never stop and think if those orders make sense or not."

"Not all of them are supposed to make sense," the colonel said, exasperated. "Some of them are for the greater picture which we're on a need-to-know basis."

"So you keep telling yourself," Nova pointed out. "Have you ever considered that maybe you're not being told everything because there's something sinister that Mengsk doesn't want you to find out?" Before she had a chance to respond, the blond ghost continued, "Don't forget, I'm a telepath here. I know you're the type of officer who tries to dig a little bit a little deeper behind orders, and try to understand slightly more to the picture. It's why you're not as resented as much by Dominion ghosts since you at least make some attempt to see us as people. All the other Dominion officers only see us as killing machines and nothing more."

Kim gritted her teeth, aggravated. The only ones in the train car now that didn't seem to favor the Raiders as much were all of Lockwell's journalists, who had remained silent this whole time. Clearly the female news reporter was far from the pro Dominion woman that people had been led to believe, but even Kim was forced to realize that she was right with regards to multiple perspectives to events.

Finally, she decided to let it go for the time being. While the troops under her command would continue to resent Raynor, she decided maybe it's time for more light to be shed on the picture. After all, as long the as the Zerg masses were still pursuing after the train, their troops would be forced to work together anyway to repel the threat.

She pushed herself up from her seat. "You guys can argue all you want, but you're not going to turn me and my troops against the Dominion. Raynor, you can say all you want about the Dominion being corrupt, but you haven't exactly shown the people the better future yourself. I'm going to speak to my troops to still cooperate with yours due to the Zerg. Once that's over with, we're done."

* * *

**Financial District, Korhal City, Korhal**

The holovid screen displayed a Dominion supply and logistics officer speaking with the Dominion emperor. "Those people in Korhal City really have it bad, don't they, sir?"

"And they expect me to help them through this mess," Mengsk said in disgust. "Well they can all go to hell for all I care. I've got far bigger matters to tend to instead of just listening to their crap."

"Then why even contact me if you're not going to do anything about it?"

"I didn't say I wasn't going to do a thing," the Dominion emperor replied. "I just won't do what they expect me to do. The Korhal City mayor expects me to give out nearly 800,000 tons of supplies of food, fuel, and medicine over the course of the next 30 days to prevent the people there from going completely crazy. I'll never hand them that much, especially not on a silver platter."

"So what do you have planned?"

"Have your boys ready the Dropships and airdrop them onto the city," Mengsk answered. "Give them about 1500 tons for the next 30 days, let the inhabitants fight it out."

"You know that's just going to cause further chaos in the city, right?"

"Of course I do, but I don't care about that. If the people down there start turning into savages who have to resort to cannibalism to stay alive, it'll just mean they're too damn weak to endure. And if they're too weak to endure, then they have no place in the Dominion, especially not the throne world. They can die for all I care."

The Dominion officer on screen nodded in understanding. "I'll begin prepping the Dropships for the airdrop operations right away, emperor."

As Mengsk turned off the communicator, one of his ghost operatives decloaked next to him. "Sir, you have a transmission from Dead Man's Rock. General Ridgeway is holding on the line for you."

The emperor pressed a button, and the general's face appeared on screen. "General, I take it you have some good news for me on the mercenary planet?"

"Hardly, sir," Ridgeway answered. "The Dominion base is getting pounded here. Our scouts have identified nearly all of the mercenary organizations on Dead Man's Rock assaulting the base."

The emperor shook his head. "And here I thought the mercs would be too scared to attack. Well, that doesn't matter. They have only outdated equipment compared to your modern ones, so they'll have to endure appalling casualties before they can even enter your base."

"That's not what's happening here," the general said. "The entrance is about to be breached right now, and the mercenaries show no sign of stopping."

"And how's that possible?" Mengsk asked.

A video display appeared on the screen, showing Thors pounding away at the Dominion bunkers guarding the entrance. "Because the mercenaries aren't the only ones attacking us. My scouts have detected military vehicles from James Raynor's Raiders as part of the assault force as well, and you know as well as I do that they have much more modern equipment."

The emperor gritted his teeth in anger and was about to turn his head away when something on screen suddenly caught his eye. "General, rewind the footage slightly and play it back at a slower speed."

Ridgeway complied, as Mengsk looked closely at the screen. "I see a psionic storm being cast there," he observed. "Are there any Protoss fighting alongside the mercenaries?"

"No, sir. I'm every bit as confused as you are about that. I know Raynor has ghosts at his disposal, but their minds aren't strong enough to do something like that."

Mengsk looked more carefully at the screen, before his eyes widened slightly. "General, freeze that picture right there."

The video display suddenly froze. "Did you find something, sir?" Ridgeway asked.

"I think I have," the emperor murmured, as he looked at a ghost operative on the ground cloaking. But before the cloak was finished and the operative vanished into the air, he saw a glimpse of her mane of fiery red hair.

Mengsk's eyes darkened in anger, and his fists clenched. "It's Kerrigan. She's fighting against your forces down there."

Ridgeway's face showed confusion. "Why the hell would Raynor have the Queen of Blades fight on his side? Isn't he even concerned about this coming back to bite him?"

"I don't know, and I don't care," the emperor said, barely controlling his rage. "General, I have another task for you once you've decimated Paradise and Deadman's Port with the nukes. Concentrate your Dominion forces against Kerrigan there. She is not to leave the planet alive under any and all circumstances."


	74. Chapter 74

**Author's Note: All right, a slighter shorter chapter this time, maybe a bit boring than others, but it'll foreshadow events to come later on. This chapter will further explore the situation with the Protoss about Kerrigan's hopes of finding redemption. You'll see perhaps it's not a lost cause for everyone after all.**

**As always, please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 74

**Bel'shir**

Flying over the jungles of Bel'Shir, General Madison looked out from the window of his Assault Dropship. He had ordered the pilot to keep to a low elevation so that they could quickly dive into the jungle's thick foliage if need be. Unlike the Medivac Dropships, the Assault Dropship had twin rotary cannons and was capable of defending itself, but Madison hoped it wouldn't come to that.

All of the Ravens that had Wraith installed cloaking generators had to return to the BattleCruisers for engineering maintenance, and this meant that the general was flying without any detectors, and could be easily spotted by Protoss Observers.

Nevertheless, he knew this flight was necessary. Before the satellite had been blown out of the sky, the scanner sweeps had indicated that the Tal'darim air power on Bel'Shir was still substantial, certainly far outnumbering whatever air power his forces still had left. If they bring in the Scouts, Phoenixes, and Void Rays and deployed them against the Dominion ground troops, the infantry would last only a few minutes before being slaughtered. It was thus necessary to fly over the Dominion soldiers on the ground and give them the impression that the Dominion would still do everything in their power to protect them from the air in the event of a Protoss attack, which seemed more and more likely with each passing minute.

Of course, depending on the terrazine harvesting, it was still a race against the clock. With nearly 300 canisters collected, confidence was starting to increase, albeit very slowly, amongst the ground troops. There was now the hope that they just might make it off this moon alive after all. The more cautious ones, however, remained extremely pessimistic. The Protoss still had enough strength on Bel'Shir to wipe them all out in less than an hour, so speed was essential.

Madison concurred with this, and it was for this reason that he spoke once more with the SCV pilots about the terrazine harvesting, as well as the Dominion ghost operatives in opening up the altar seals. In the former's case, speed and efficiency had improved from when they first landed on Bel'Shir, but the latter's case remained unfavorable due to the constant psionic exhaustion, which greatly reduced the harvesting operation's effectiveness. According to the lead SCV pilots, at the rate of the harvesting was progressing so far, it would take at least another 12 hours to reach the 500 canister mark, although only 4 more to reach bare minimum of 400 canisters collected.

To Madison, the choice was obvious. He would shoot for just the bare minimum number of terrazine canisters that Mengsk had ordered him to collect on Bel'Shir, and then get his troops away from this moon. The jungles here may be beautiful, but to him and his Dominion troops, they only represented hell for all the fighting against the Tal'darim they had to do, and most likely would have to do again.

The general then looked out to see the tiny flickers of light besides his Assault Dropship, an indication of his Wraith escorts. He had made sure that not all of the Wraiths had their cloaking generators removed to be installed onto the Ravens as they had no offensive capabilities other than the seeker missile, and even that could be easily avoided given the sleek and agile design of the Tal'darim Scout and Phoenix interceptors. On the other hand, while the Wraiths' gemini missiles did not have the same punch compared to the Vikings' lanzer torpedoes, but its cloaking ability gave it the element of surprise, and that has proven itself time and again to be a formidable advantage in combat.

Even so, the element of surprise also quickly fades once the enemy is aware of your presence, and Madison knew that if the Protoss were alerted to the Dominion on Bel'Shir once more, they would scramble every aerospace vessel that could fly and come after them with it. There was certainly no possible way to handle them all. Indeed, the Dominion marines on the ground were now being forced to duck into the jungle's foliage more and more frequently due to Tal'darim Scouts flying over the altar positions. Clearly the Protoss knew that something wasn't right, even if they still had no idea that the Dominion were on Bel'Shir once more.

"General," the pilot suddenly announced. "The Wraiths have spotted another Protoss Scout flying over the altar area."

Madison gritted his teeth, as he stepped into the cockpit the join the pilot. "If this keeps up our SCVs will have to keep hiding from them and we'll never get the terrazine harvesting done. Contact the Wraiths. See if they can get that Scout to follow us instead."

The pilot looked confused. "I thought we don't want the Protoss to know we're here, sir."

"The Wraiths only have to fly close to it and that's it," Madison explained. "As long as they remain cloaked, the Scout won't be able to tell just who it is. We can get him to follow us for a while, and lure him away from the altars. Once that happens, the Wraiths can scatter and lose the Scout."

"As you wish, sir." The pilot entered a few codes into the terminal, and the cloaked Wraiths around the Assault Dropship broke off their escort.

"Land the Dropship in the jungle," Madison ordered. "The foliage will provide us cover so that we don't get spotted."

As they touched the ground, the communicator beeped. "General, it worked. The Protoss Scout is following us now. We're taking him towards the one of the waterfalls, relatively far away from the altars."

"Good work boys," Madison said, but then his eyes widened as he heard sounds of gunfire from over the channel. "Report! I said for you to lead the Scout away, not shoot it out of the sky! What the hell are you doing?"

"It's not us, sir! I think an Observer might have just joined up with the Scout! If so, then we have just been spotted!"

Madison slammed his fist down on the terminal. This was the last thing he needed right now. "What is your status?"

"We're all ok, sir, but we had to expend quite a few of our gemini missiles to shoot down the Scout."

"And what about the possible Observer?" the general demanded.

"We see it," one of the Wraith pilots replied. "It's been hit by one of our gemini missiles and has also gone down. It lost its cloak, so we can easily finish it off."

Madison rubbed his temples. Now that shots have been fired, the Tal'darim would soon be coming to investigate. It won't be long now before Protoss Zealots, Immortals, Stalkers, Sentries, and Colossi come storming through the jungle in search of the Dominion base. The most that could be done now was to delay this for as long as possible.

"Where exactly did the Protoss Scout ship and Observer go down?" he asked.

"The Scout landed in the lake near the waterfall," came the reply. "I'm pretty sure there's no way the Protoss pilot could have survived though. We gave his ship one hell of a pounding. The Observer drone is down near the lake, but not in it. There's fire coming out of its fried circuitry and everything."

"Pinpoint that location on the map immediately. One of you boys stay there and wait for the Dominion engineers to arrive," Madison said over comm-link. "And don't do anything stupid. The last thing I need is for even more shots to be fired. It's already going to take a miracle to salvage the situation now."

"I don't understand, sir."

"Well for the moment, we don't know if the Protoss pilot had been able to inform his buddies that the Dominion are still on Bel'Shir before you shot him down. Now assuming we get lucky and he hadn't, it won't be long before he fails to report to the rest of the Protoss. When that happens, they'll come to investigate. In addition thanks to the Observer now belching fire, the smoke is going to be a dead giveaway that something has gone wrong."

"We can put the fires out immediately, general."

"Do that," Madison ordered. "Once that's done, the Dominion engineers will come and take the wreckage of the Scout and Observer away, to be hidden in the jungle. Hopefully that'll keep the Tal'darim off our backs while they keep searching for their friend, as well as allow us to finish harvesting the remaining terrazine needed before the bullets start flying and everything goes to hell."

* * *

**Aiur**

Artanis listened carefully as both Tabrenus and Vartanil stated their points. The Furinax leader less so, given his lack of experience on the matter, but Vartanil proved extremely persistent. However, this also gave the Hierarch the impression that the young Protoss warrior was becoming far too optimistic about the overall picture.

Four years ago, when he and James Raynor fought against the Zerg during the Brood War, Artanis too had raised the issue of the Queen of Blades to the terran commander. Despite the actions that she had done, he could sense that Raynor was not fully convinced of the crimes Kerrigan had committed. Even after the shock of betrayal after the death of Fenix, Artanis still sensed that Raynor could not fully bring himself to blame her.

It had been a weakness that the former Queen of Blades had thoroughly exploited, but to say that such feelings and emotions only ran one way was certainly not as simple as the Hierarch believed. James Raynor had made it clear to him that when he first encountered Kerrigan having been infested by the Zerg on Char, she had slaughtered a great deal of his forces. However upon meeting up with him, she had instead given him to chance to leave Char with his life.

It certainly seemed preposterous that the Queen of Blades would have any comprehension of the concept of mercy, but this certainly appeared to be the case when she encountered Raynor. Even when she had shown her true colors during the Brood War and had noble Fenix killed on the planet of Korhal, James Raynor had made it clear to him that Kerrigan had the opportunity to have him killed there as well, yet she chose not to.

Was it a simple matter of toying with her enemies as she had done to others? Or was there something deeper between them? Prior to her having been brought before the Protoss Hierarchy, Artanis had always believed it was the former's case, that Kerrigan took sadistic pleasure in seeing James Raynor suffer and wallow in guilt for everything that had happened. But now, after finally seeing what she was like without the Zerg infestation, the young Hierarch could no longer be as certain.

James Raynor clearly had an effect on her than no one else had, and what Zeratul had uncovered in Kerrigan's mind only further confirmed this. Before, Artanis had simply believed that whatever humanity that Kerrigan once had would have perished during upon infestation. Even if it had not, then it certainly would have during the four years she spent with the Zerg. However James Raynor had informed him of what had happened during the final assault on the primary hive cluster on Char, and how even before the Xel'Naga artifact had been activated that restored Kerrigan to human form, he had heard her telepathically call out to him, encouraging him to keep fighting.

Still, even if the Zerg infestation had never succeeded in destroying her humanity, there had certainly been no signs of that with regards to anyone else. Despite being a hero to the Protoss people, relatively few numbers of the Firstborn had any detailed comprehension of James Raynor and his relationship to Kerrigan. Most refused to even make the slightest attempt to comprehend this, and this was exactly the same way the Khalai Protoss felt towards the Nerazim long after they had been banished from Aiur.

This was something that now had to change. If what Zeratul had sensed about Kerrigan was correct and that her feelings for James Raynor were every bit as strong as his for her, then perhaps it was this feeling that had allowed her to retain her free will and sanity despite the Zerg infestation.

Unfortunately, this did not carry the weight as expected among the rest of the Hierarchy. James Raynor made it clear that he was the only one who had seen her personality prior to the Zerg infestation, and during the Brood War he had also admitted to Artanis that it was only after Kerrigan had been taken by the Zerg that he realized he had fallen in love with her. Nahaan had argued that as the terran commander had not realized his feelings for the former Queen of Blades until then, it was also possible that Kerrigan never realized she had feelings for him, assuming they even existed in the first place.

This was countered by the fact that Kerrigan had not killed him on sight upon her birth into the Zerg swarm on Char, and after what Zeratul had uncovered, Artanis was no longer convinced that Kerrigan never had feelings for James Raynor. If the strong feelings she had for him were real, then it was certainly possible that those feelings had allowed her to retain a measure of control over the Queen of Blades, however slight that may have been.

Of course, this was also based on the assumption that Kerrigan and the Queen of Blades were two completely separate individuals, and even James Raynor could not say that with absolute certainty, despite the fact he continued to believe it. Many Protoss already argued that this believe was nothing but wishful thinking, just as it was wishful thinking to believe that when the Zerg went quiet after the Brood War, they would never return.

Still, to look at events from Kerrigan's perspective seemed almost unthinkable. Most would feel that there would be nothing to look at, other than her ambition and thirst for conquest and destruction for all living things. Indeed, many Protoss were very uncomfortable when asked to see that there was more to the former Queen of Blades than merely a monster during her time with the Zerg.

"These are very dangerous things to ask of me," he said to Vartanil. "You had said it yourself that the Protoss Hierarchy must not be like that of the Conclave, which had been too corrupt for its own good. Because of that, despite my position as Hierarch, my power is far from absolute. It had been extremely difficult to convince the Daelaam Protoss not to execute Kerrigan on sight after we had confirmation of James Raynor's victory on Char. To now encourage them to see that she was never a monster to begin with would result in total chaos and we simply cannot afford the unity of the Firstborn to be destroyed."

"Perhaps, but what alternative do we have?" the young Furinax Protoss asked. "Even Kerrigan herself does not understand the specifics of her role as savior. We do not either, and unless there is a way to falsify the Xel'Naga prophecy, we have to accept her in this role. However I cannot see how this is possible if none of the Firstborn are willing to see her as anything other than a mass murderer. In order for Kerrigan to prevent Armageddon, she must be convinced that the Protoss are willing to accept the fact that she is capable of more than merely total destruction."

Tabrenus put his hand on Vartanil's shoulder. "That will certainly not be easy given her time with the Zerg and the atrocities committed in the past years," he said calmly. "It is unlikely that she will even be able to convince herself on this matter."

"And this only reinforces my point," the young Protoss replied. "It is a matter of trust and putting our faith in her. I know that this has had severe consequences in the past, but Kerrigan is no longer the Zerg monster we fought against. If she remains convinced that the Protoss would execute her for what happened in the past, then she would remain fatalistic about the overall situation and would be unable to perform her tasks ahead as effectively."

"You believe Kerrigan must be convinced that the Firstborn are willing to give her a chance at redemption," Artanis stated.

"This is a matter we must look into and carefully monitor the Ara Tribe Protoss," Tabrenus pointed out. "We know that Nahaan has sent his Ara people to send word to the other Protoss tribes and to convince them that it is worth taking a risk with the Xel'Naga prophecy. If this continues, he may be able to influence greater numbers of Protoss to seek retribution against Kerrigan before we have a chance to fully understand the greater picture, and you made it clear that the understanding of the prophecy must come first."

"The Dark Templar tribes will not be swayed by Nahaan's actions. Of all the Khalai Protoss, they despise the Ara Tribe the most as they were dominant in the Conclave, who was then responsible for having them exiled from Aiur. Zekrath and his Shelak Tribe will be of the same, especially since Nahaan is suggesting that the Xel'Naga prophecy should be disregarded as a whole. I will keep my Akilae Tribe warriors in check so they shall not be influenced by the Ara Tribe."

"And what of the Auriga Tribe?" Vartanil asked.

Artanis thought about this for a moment. "Urun's greatest concern is that Aiur shall no longer be endangered so that the Protoss society and civilization can be rebuilt here once the last of the Zerg have been eradicated. This makes him the most vulnerable to Nahaan's influence since none of us have any evidence to prove that Kerrigan no longer has any control over the Zerg swarm. I must admit that if she is still able to control the Zerg, however slight a degree that may be, it could greatly strengthen Nahaan's influence."

"I concur with the Hierarch on this, young Vartanil," Tabrenus said. "If Kerrigan regains control over the Zerg swarm, the Daelaam Protoss will be in danger once more. Despite her role in the Xel'Naga prophecy, she should not be allowed to interact with the Zerg too greatly."

"Whether she can still control the Zerg or not may be irrelevant," the young Protoss pointed out, turning his head to Artanis. "According to what you have told me when you had spoken to James Raynor in the past, he made it clear that Kerrigan was a noble warrior before the Zerg had infested her. This is no different than the days of the Conclave, both prior and during the Zerg invasion of Aiur."

The Protoss Hierarch looked somewhat confused. "What do Kerrigan's actions have to deal with the Conclave?"

Tabrenus suddenly spoke up, understanding what the young Furinax Protoss was saying. "The Conclave was a symbol of great power to the Khalai Protoss, but they had used their power ineffectively and caused Aiur to be overrun by the Zerg. If the ancient Xel'Naga relic that James Raynor had used on Char had removed the Zerg infestation from Kerrigan's mind and she still has some measure of control over the Zerg, it may be possible that she would no longer use them for such savage purposes."

"I do not see how this could be possible. All of our encounters have shown that the Zerg only exist to consume, assimilate, and destroy," Artanis pointed out.

"Which, according to the Xel'Naga prophecy, was their purpose after they had been altered," Vartanil argued back. "Their original directive was not to pursue the total destruction of the Protoss."

The Protoss Hierarch saw that this was clearly getting nowhere, and there was no point to argue any further without more clues at hand. "All right, Vartanil. I will see what can be done to the rest of the Daelaam Protoss with regards to your request. To keep Nahaan and his Ara Tribe's influence from spreading to the rest of the Protoss is a far simpler task, but you have certainly raised points that could be valid both now and in events later on. I sincerely hope that your fondness is not affecting your judgment on the overall situation."

* * *

**Train, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Jim looked on at the UNN anchorwoman. He was still having a hard time taking it all in after Kate had informed him of her experiences at the planet of Candore and meeting up with Michael Liberty and the Knights of Freedom organization. A part of him still felt it could be some sort of trick after everything UNN has done in portraying him and his Raiders.

Still, the rational part of him told otherwise. After the way UNN had portrayed him for so long, he had completely discarded the fact that not everyone in the network was a mindless drone and completely obedient to Mengsk. It was a very similar mentality he had when he was on Mar Sara, shortly before the Zerg invasion. After fighting the Dominion for so long, he just didn't believe there was anyone in the Dominion that didn't favor Mengsk.

That Lockwell didn't fully support the emperor could also be turned to his advantage. If she was telling the truth about the change in policy as she declared on the news, then it could change the Dominion public's view on the Raiders, as well as that of Mengsk and further weaken his hold, perhaps even shatter it completely.

He had already agreed to give the female reporter a chance to see how she will take matters, but even so he was somewhat concerned for her safety. To speak out against the emperor was technically considered treason, and during the invasion of Char, Warfield had confirmed to him that thousands of arrests had been made on Dominion core worlds due to the public rioting against the Mengsk.

He looked at Kate in the eye. "It's not that I don't want to believe you, Ms. Lockwell. But despite the change in policy, UNN is technically still a Dominion media branch. Looking into the views of other factions is one thing, but speaking out against the emperor is quite another."

Kate was about to object when Raynor continued, "I saw your UNN broadcast right after what I had done on Korhal. You were in the middle of broadcasting of the corruption in the Dominion government, but then the Dominion security shut you down."

"That just proves the emperor is obsessed with stifling others," she insisted. "If you've got nothing good to say about him, you can't say anything at all."

"It also gave me the impression that the Dominion security was going to throw you in a prison cell," Jim said. "I saw the news of how Mengsk retreated to his palace and refused to give further comments to the public. However before he disappeared from view, he continued to insist that the evidence broadcasted against him were merely concoctions."

"He has a point there," Nova added. "If you were allowed broadcast your news about the corruption, I'm pretty sure the Dominion military would have sent ghost operatives out to have you assassinated, then make it look like an accident. Trust me, it's not as uncommon as you think. Ever since Jim helped me recover my memories, I remembered who other ghost agents are assigned to kill Dominion public speakers who voice their doubts and dissatisfaction against Mengsk. We're the ones who deliver the bullet to the guy's head, then the Dominion security forces come in and make it look like it was either an accident, or it was one of the Dominion's enemies that did this."

Kate was taken aback. "You really think the emperor takes that violent of a step simply for journalistic integrity?"

"Tell me something," Jim said calmly. "I'm sure by now you've heard of my raid on the New Folsom prison complex."

"I have, I just didn't get to do the story because other news teams beat me there first. They were going there for hours about how you and your Raiders set loose all the prisoners there and how this has unleashed a nightmare for the Dominion military now that they have to go put them back in their cages again."

"A lot of them were just philosophers and free thinkers," the commander replied. "Nova told me about how those were the people that spoke out against Mengsk, but due to their reputation, he couldn't kill them on the spot. As a result they were simply sent to New Folsom to rot to death. Believe me Ms. Lockwell, if Mengsk couldn't kill you to shut you up, he would have simply done the next best thing and put you in a prison cell and let you rot."

"He probably would have had he known that you had given the Knights of Freedom that footage of what happened on Candore," Mal added. "You said it yourself that Major Hawkins declared you a traitor to the Dominion right then and there. I had watched the news myself about that and how the Knights of Freedom aired that footage during the two year anniversary of Mengsk's inauguration as Dominion emperor."

"We technically still could now," Kim said, coming back into the train car. "The Dominion is the defender of terran civilization, Ms. Lockwell. If you had gone on with the news about Dominion government corruption, you would have been portraying us as nothing but mass murderers and homicidal maniacs."

"Kim, the Dominion had been founded on a lie," Raynor said. "You and the rest of the military had only been led to believe you were fighting for a righteous cause, and you still are now. There are those at the Dominion high command who probably are aware of this, but they continue to delude themselves into thinking it's all for the greater good."

He turned his head back to Kate. "You have to remember that back in year 2500 when the Dominion was created after the fall of the Confederacy, people had been led to believe that the Zerg had attacked the Confederate capital world of Tarsonis en masse. That wasn't a lie, but they had not been told as to _why_ the Zerg attacked Tarsonis. Given that they tended to invade worlds and kill entire populations, the general belief was that this was just part of their nature to conquer and destroy worlds, and this was exactly why it was so easy for Mengsk to hide the truth about what really happened."

The female reported nodded slowly. "A lot of people did say that Mengsk strove against the Confederacy and then the Zerg conveniently destroyed the government he fought against. I guess no one ever considered the possibility that the two events might be linked together."

"Exactly my point," Jim said. "Mengsk led almost everyone in the Koprulu Sector to believe that his Sons of Korhal had saved as many people as they could, and this made him the savior of humanity from the Zerg. He was then praised by the people who did not realize what had really happened, and this was the reason why the people continued to worship him for all these years. Now that what I had broadcasted on Korhal had proven that he was not the savior as the people had been led to believe, and instead a mass murderer who was responsible for the genocide on Tarsonis to begin with, well let's just say it really shook the belief people had in the Dominion."

"The people at UNN were shocked as well, Mr. Raynor. Even the Mengsk loyalists had nothing to say about it except hope that the evidence couldn't be true because they refused to believe that their emperor could be that cruel."

"There are a lot of things too cruel to be listed when it comes to him," Raynor replied. "Some of them are staring you right in the face. Just look at all the refugees in the aftermath of the Zerg invasion. Even now, your emperor is still ordering that the Dominion core worlds turn them away."

"Dr. Hanson of the Agria colony told us about the refugee staging area on the planet of Meinhoff," Nova added. "Turned out there was a huge Zerg infestation virus that threatened to kill them all, yet the Dominion chose to do nothing about it. If it weren't for the Raiders, the whole planet would have gotten infested."

"You're acting like we chose to ignore the problem altogether," Kim said, frowning. "We did no such thing. We merely needed a little time to prepare, that's all."

"I'm sure that's what you keep telling yourself," Jim scoffed. "That and you convinced yourselves that the Zerg invasion had to be dealt with first, only then would you turn to helping the refugees. Given that you didn't even take the fight to Char as I did, who the hell knows just how long the refugees had to wait before help from the Dominion arrived."

"You didn't take the fight to the Zerg yourself, Raynor," Kim countered. "The Dominion fleet backed you and your rebel group up. We were the ones responsible for defeating the Zerg, all you did was stand on the sidelines."

"Warfield said the same thing to me right before the invasion, portraying me and the Raiders as cowards. When it was all over, he praised me for what I did, and so did many of his troops. You honestly think I alone could have corrupted that many Dominion troops into doing my bidding?"

"Given everything that's happened, I'd say that's certainly on the cards, but nothing you say or do is going to lure me and my troops in," the female colonel stated. She was about to go further when her radio went off.

"Colonel Kim, we're approaching the salvaging destination," one of the Dominion engineers reported.

"What about the Zerg?" she asked.

"They've fallen behind, though orbital scans confirm that they're still after the train you're on. A small number of them have turned around and went back to other parts in the city, but there's still nearly 20,000 Zerg hot on your trail."

Kim looked over at Raynor and Nova, sighing as she realized she had no choice in the matter. "Very well then. Have our boys deploy alongside those of Raynor's. We'll use the rubble from the city to set up a defensive perimeter to channel the Zerg into killing zones and ambush points."

"That won't hold the Zerg forever, ma'am."

"It doesn't have to, soldier," Kim answered. "We just need to hold the position long enough for the engineers to restore power to the rail network that leads the train to Giddings Station. That place is a starport that takes passengers to the orbital platforms for further transport. During the days of the Confederacy, passengers used the station all the time to reach the orbital station of Osborne Port."

"But Giddings Station is a civilian starport, colonel. It wasn't designed to handle military traffic, especially not in the case with the Zerg in pursuit."

"Try looking into Tarsonis Starport," Nova piped up. "It's much bigger than Giddings Station and is located close by. Its main purpose was for cargo shipments, but it's much bigger than Giddings Station and can handle more people for evacuation."

Off of Kim's confused look, the blond ghost rolled her eyes. "Now that I recovered my memories, I remember my life in Tarsonis City when I grew up, Kim. I know this place pretty damn well, and unlike your emperor, I'm not the type to abandon people, especially not to be eaten alive by the Zerg."

Kim sighed as she spoke into the radio. "Do as Nova suggested. Clear the rubble on the rails leading to Tarsonis Starport and restore the rail power leading there as quickly as possible. We'll salvage whatever technology we can from this area, and that'll be the end of the matter. I want to be out of here before the Zerg overrun the whole city."


	75. Chapter 75

**Author's Note: The first part of this chapter goes back to chapters 24 and 29, where Felanis showed Zeratul the 6 vat hybrid creatures found in the Xel'Naga Caverns on Aiur, and they were then taken to Shakuras for study and analysis. I thought it'd be a good idea to turn back to them again, just to give an idea of what happened to them since their last mention in chapter 29.**

**When I looked back at the situation in Korhal City, I decided it was better to give the city mayor a slightly bigger role to play in the things to come, that's why I decided to name the guy, and let things play out from there. I wanted to show the resentment towards Mengsk begin growing more and more among his own people.  
**

**As always, please read and review and I'll see you next time.  
**

* * *

Chapter 75

**Shakuras**

Dark Templar scholars continued to observe in awe, shock, and horror of the vat creatures. Despite having long since been mass recalled from Protoss Motherships on Aiur to Shakuras, the sight of Protoss-Zerg hybrids continued to horrify the Firstborn.

Besides them, Shelak Protoss expressed the same reaction. The Zerg were the most vile creatures the Protoss had ever known, and to see that their races had been merged together was considered to be unthinkable to even speak of, let alone occur.

This had led to many of the Nerazim to lash out at the Dark Archon Ulrezaj. By now, news had spread all over Shakuras that he had escaped his confines from the Alys'aril Nexus on Ehlna. Initially, there were those among the Dark Templar who had believed that his action four years ago in an attempt to exterminate the Khalai Protoss on Shakuras was evidence that he had been blinded by his hatred. Now, however, with confirmation that the Protoss-Zerg hybrids in vats as part of his experiments and kept within the sacred Xel'Naga Caverns underneath Aiur, both Khalai and Nerazim Protoss have declared him a traitor to the Firstborn, and to that of all creation in the universe.

Yet the Daelaam Protoss were left in confusion as to how such horrific creatures had been forged. According to the testimonies from the templar warrior Felanis, Ulrezaj had used the massive Khaydarin Crystal at the heart of the Xel'Naga Caverns in order to drain the life essence of both Zerg and Tal'darim Protoss. This was used as a means to enhance his immense strength, and he had done so similarly using the underwater energies on Ehlna as a means to restore his strength should he come to harm.

It was clear to the Firstborn that there was still much they needed to comprehend about the Khaydarin Crystal artifacts used by the Xel'Naga. Despite being a former Alysaar, Ulrezaj had gained much experience and knowledge on his own, and such knowledge had allowed him to merge with seven other Dark Templar in order to form a far more powerful Dark Archon than what the Nerazim can normally merge together to form. Because of the knowledge he possessed that others did not, it was certainly possible for him to find a way in which to develop the Protoss-Zerg hybrids.

Yet there were those who were not comfortable to trust the words of Felanis. Having been a Tal'darim himself and more thoroughly corrupted by the Sundrop substance, many had voiced concerns if he was being truthful with noble Zeratul on Aiur, or if he had simply gone mad.

Still, the Protoss Hierarchy seemed willing to give the former Tal'darim warrior a chance, and the same was true for all of the Tal'darim survivors that the Daelaam Protoss had located on Aiur. Almost all of them were greatly angered to learn that their great Xava'tor was in reality a Dark Archon, and had used them to capture Zerg specimens for his personal experiments and power gains. Despite their unwillingness to integrate into the Daelaam Protoss society, they had conceded that Ulrezaj was their enemy and would be willing to see that he would never again pose a threat to the Firstborn.

With regards to the six vat creatures that had been transported to Shakuras, it was quickly seen that they were a Zerg-based type of hybrid as it contained a significant amount of Zerg carapace, yet also contained elements of Protoss energy signatures of Templars and Archons on its body. While dormant in the containment vat itself, the Protoss had made numerous attempts to prod and examine it in the hopes of determining a weakness.

According to what Zeratul had seen from the Zerg Overmind's apocalyptic vision of the future, there were numerous Zerg-based type hybrids that assaulted the Protoss with the Zerg swarm as the Firstborn made their final stand. Although both Khalai and Nerazim Protoss were ultimately wiped out, Zeratul had confirmed that prior to that, the Daelaam Protoss had killed a number of these hybrids both Zerg and Protoss-based, before they were finally overwhelmed.

That meant despite their immense physical and psionic capabilities, the hybrids were still vulnerable. Whether this was true to terran weaponry or not remained to be seen, as word had also spread that James Raynor had encountered a Zerg-based hybrid within a terran installation, yet their weapons had little effect on it other than making it angry.

On the other hand, tissue samples taken from the hybrids had been thoroughly examined and subjected to test trials of Protoss weaponry. After conducting numerous tests, it was clear that the hybrid carapace was still vulnerable to the psionic and technological weapons wielded by the Firstborn, both Khalai and Nerazim alike.

Yet this was not to say that the hybrids could be easily killed on the battlefield. Despite the fact that these Zerg-based hybrids were only slightly larger than the size of a Hydralisk, their attack power far exceeded that. Even the massive Ultralisk and its deadly Kaiser Blades came nowhere close to the destructive power of the hybrids' claws. The new generation of Zerg Queens, Large Queens, and Huge Queens, all of them had been encountered during the assault on the Overmind's husk on Aiur, none of their claw attacks even came close compared to the destructive power of these hybrid Reavers as they were called according to the Overmind's vision of the future of Armageddon.

Only the most powerful of the Zerg ground breeds, the Brutalisk and Omegalisk, and later the Kraken as encountered on Aiur, could match or surpass the hybrid Reaver's destructive capabilities. However, all three of these Zerg strains were massive, slow, generally clumsy on the battlefield. In comparison, the hybrid Reavers seemed to be extremely fast and agile. In addition, because they also possessed energy shields similar to that used by Protoss warriors out on the battlefield, it meant that the hybrid Reavers were far more difficult to kill compared to the Zerg Brutalisks and Omegalisks.

Because of their smaller size, some of the Nerazim had argued that the hybrid Reavers could be suspended in mid-air via the Phoenix interceptor's graviton beams. While this certainly appeared to be a viable option, it still depended on the sheer number of hybrid Reavers that existed, and no one knew the answer to that. The same was true with regards to the limits of their psionic capabilities, as that too would determine how long the hybrid Reavers could remain suspended in mid-air. If they were powerful enough, and the Protoss examinations certainly seem to suggest that, then trapping them within a graviton prison may not be possible at all.

Zekrath looked on from a distance as the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss continued to examine the vat contained hybrids. While none of the Firstborn fully understood the purpose behind such monstrosities, Zeratul had made it clear that according to the Overmind's vision of the future, these abominations would be responsible for enslaving the Zerg swarm after the Queen of Blades had finally been killed, and together they were responsible eradicating the Protoss as the Firstborn made their final stand.

To the Shelak leader, it came as little surprise of the potential of the hybrids. Even before the Daelaam Protoss had mustered their forces to reclaim Aiur from the Zerg, Zeratul had informed the Protoss Hierarchy of the Protoss-based hybrid Maar that he encountered on the forbidden archive world of Zhakul, and how it alone had corrupted and enslaved the Zhakul Guardians and imprisoned the Protoss holy preservers and drained their energies in order to further enhance its own powers, as well as to preserve its own life when it came in danger of being killed.

If a single hybrid had the power to corrupt that many seasoned Protoss warriors, it was certainly possible for them to do similarly to the Zerg. Yet for all the examinations thus far done on the vile creatures, it would appear that the Fallen One that had been mentioned in the Xel'Naga prophecy had spent a great deal of time and energy on the hybrids. While they were still vulnerable to the weapons wielded by the Firstborn, there have not yet been any signs that any parts of their body were more vulnerable than others. In short, despite the fact that the hybrids were perverse creations, almost every aspect of strength from the Zerg and Protoss had been effectively molded together to forge a devastating biological killing machine.

One such aspect of its destructive capabilities came from its ability to create constricting slime around its vicinity. Many Khalai Protoss quickly saw its similarity compared to the Zerg Queen breeds during the Brood War, where such Queens used its ensnare ability to spray mucus on templar warriors and significantly reducing their combat speed and effectiveness on the battlefield. The constricting slime ability had also been discovered to affect Protoss buildings and temporarily preventing them from functioning, similar to the contamination ability by the Zerg Overseer where it sprayed its creep onto Photon Cannons and temporarily prevent them from firing.

Unlike the Queen's ensnare however, the constricting slime sprayed by the hybrid Reaver had been shown to be detrimental to nearby targets and making them more vulnerable to attack on the battlefield. This is very similar to that of the corruption ability by the Zerg Corruptor and the fungal growth ability of the Zerg Infestor, as in each case the Zerg creature would cover its target in biological tissue and render it temporarily weaker than normal, allowing it to be easily killed by Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Roaches, or simply infested by the Zerg swarm altogether.

Far more terrifying of the hybrid Reaver was what appeared to be the ability to assimilate DNA, where Protoss scholars who have examined the vat hybrids theorized that they have the ability to discharge a psionic tremor around themselves, and everything biological around the discharge radius would be affected, and their very life essence would be absorbed into the vile creature.

Yet this ability greatly concerned Zekrath in another way, as something similar had already been seen. According to the Daelaam Protoss Observers that had recorded James Raynor's victory on Char, the ancient Xel'Naga artifact that deinfested the Queen of Blades possessed a very similar ability, where it discharged the energy nova that proved lethal to all Zerg unfortunate enough to be caught in its blast radius. Yet when the artifact had fired its fully charged energy wave, it had absorbed almost all of the Zerg essence within the Queen of Blades and reverted her back to human form, as well as devastated all parts of the Zerg hive cluster that had been caught in its blast.

To this end, Zekrath was greatly concerned if the hybrid Reavers share more of a similarity to the Xel'Naga relic than the Firstborn would admit. It was not something that would be well received, but the Shelak leader knew that such a possibility could not be factored out.

It was for this reason that he had to return to the Xel'Naga temple on Shakuras. If the carvings on the temple walls could provide clues with regards to the hybrids, or even the Xel'Naga relic that had been used to defeat the Queen of Blades, it must be known to the Protoss people immediately.

* * *

**Xel'Naga Temple, Shakuras**

Upon returning to the Xel'Naga temple, the Shelak leader was once again greeted by the guardians Taarim and Korlendir. Both of them bowed in respect to Zekrath.

"Your humbleness here is not necessary," he said calmly to them. "Do not forget, you are the guardians of this mighty Xel'Naga temple. Here, I am merely a visitor who wishes to seek out more information."

"As do we, noble Zekrath," Korlendir replied. "You and the other Khalai and Nerazim Protoss on Shakuras have examined these hybrid Reavers that have been transported from the Xel'Naga Caverns on Aiur. Had I known of the true identity of our Xava'tor, I would have ignored his order to enter the massive Khaydarin Crystal chamber at the heart of the caverns, where he had placed these monstrosities."

"No one blames you for this, young templar," the Shelak leader reminded him. "You owe nothing to us. Rather, it is we who owe you for the suffering you had endured upon being abandoned on Aiur after it had been overrun by the Zerg."

"What have you discovered about the wretched creatures, these hybrids?" Taarim asked.

"Despite their perversion to all of creation, the examinations have not been well," Zekrath answered, as the three of them walked towards the Xel'Naga temple. "The Daelaam Protoss have been able to extract tissue from the dormant creatures without awakening them, and we have subjected them to weapons trials to determine any weaknesses. Unfortunately, the results have shown that these hybrid Reavers are capable of an accelerated rate of regeneration on their carapace, exceeding even that of the Zerg's rapid recovery rate, although their skin remains vulnerable to the weapons wielded by the Firstborn."

"And yet they appear to be impervious to the weapons of our terran allies," Tarrim folded his arms. "It means the task of defeating the hybrids has been forced upon the Protoss."

"Do not be so quick to underestimate them," the Shelak leader pointed out. "Remember, mighty Tassadar may have sacrificed his life to destroy the Overmind, but James Raynor and his terran warriors had assisted us in defeating the legions of Zerg that had allowed such an event to be successful. This is clear proof that the terrans are still a formidable opponent despite the inferiority of their technology compared to the Protoss."

"And yet their technology has proven to be ineffective against the hybrids."

"As in the case with the Protoss, the terrans' technology has its limitations. The creation of the hybrids is something that would appear to be beyond the capabilities of Protoss technology, so it should be considered a blessing that the creatures are still vulnerable to our weapons and can be killed by our warriors. This was how mighty Zeratul had defeated the hybrid Maar on the archive world of Zhakul when it had enslaved the Protoss holy preservers."

"And it is for this reason that the apocalyptic vision seen by the Overmind is taken seriously," Korlendir said, catching on. "If the hybrids could corrupt Protoss, then they should also have the ability to corrupt the Zerg."

"This is why despite the continued denial from our fellow brethren, it would appear that the clues Zeratul had uncovered from the Overmind appears to be more and more valid, and the Hierarchy itself is growing concerned about the threat of the hybrids. That these six vats contained ones here on Shakuras have so far been our only true source of evidence short of speculation has only increased our worries. It is for this reason that everything that can be known about them must be discovered at the soonest possible time. If greater numbers of these hybrids awaken from distant moons and stars, we could very well face a threat far greater than the Zerg had ever posed to us."

Zekrath stepped into the temple with Taarim and Korledir and continued, "It is for this reason that I hope that you have been able to successfully translate more of the writings and texts on the walls of the Xel'Naga temple. Have you uncovered anything other than the functions of this particular temple?"

"Some of the texts translated have shown what the Firstborn have already discovered ourselves," Taarim answered. "What we have translated pointed out to the Xel'Naga temple on the planet of Nemaka. The temple itself was surrounded by hundreds of sacred Khaydarin Crystals, and many of the Dark Templar expressed enthusiasm to recover the ancient artifacts of the Xel'Naga there."

"It was from there that the terran Jake Ramsey had found the Protoss preserver Zamara," Zekrath said. "She had landed there due to her attempt to escape assassination by a fellow Nerazim of the Dark Archon Ulrezaj. According to noble Mohandar and Executor Selendis who had seen this Jake Ramsey on the Dark Templar sanctuary of Ehlna, he had a passion for discovering ancient lost technologies and civilizations, though nowhere near to the extent of the Dark Templar scholars here on Shakuras. According to them, before Jake Ramsey had discovered Zamara from within the Xel'Naga temple on Nemaka, he had been leading an excavation operation on the planet of Pegasus."

"That world also contains an ancient Xel'Naga temple," Korlendir stated. "It was among the texts here that we have translated."

"Zeratul had informed us that through Zamara, he too had learned of the existence of temple on that world and traveled there himself," the Shelak leader told him.

"What did he discover?"

"This is something he has yet to share in explicit details with the Hierarchy," Zekrath said, and Taarim could see a slight hint of frustration on his face. This came as no surprise, as the Shelak leader greatly valued knowledge of the Xel'Naga. "Zeratul has made it clear that what he had discovered at the Xel'Naga temple on Pegasus, along with the Xel'Naga prophecy on Ulaan and further clues provided by the Overmind is to be shared with more than the Firstborn. He believes that James Raynor should also be known the picture that he had uncovered."

"You mentioned that James Raynor was among the first that mighty Zeratul had informed the Xel'Naga prophecy about," murmured Taarim.

"Unlike myself who only recently seen the terran, Zeratul and him had fought together against the Zerg even before the Brood War. It is clear that James Raynor is to be trusted, despite the feelings he still harbors for the former Queen of Blades."

"The only new discovery we have uncovered with regards to the Xel'Naga temple on Pegasus was the fact that it was described as a luminous, glowing green, wild temple. In comparison, the temple here on Shakuras is considered to be organized, planned, and structured." Korlendir shook his head. "Beyond that, we have made little progress on the translations of the texts on the temple walls."

"It nevertheless proves that we are heading in the right direction," encouraged Zekrath, nodding his acknowledgement to the rest of the guardians of the Xel'Naga temple. "If you continue your efforts, I am confident that you will be able to uncover the answers that the Protoss seek."

He then turned around and began heading towards the exit. "I shall now take my leave and return to Aiur. By now, most of the Zerg presence there should be eradicated, and we will finally be able to uncover further clues from the corpse of the Zerg Overmind. If you uncover anything new on the temple walls, inform the Daelaam Protoss on Aiur immediately."

* * *

**Korhal City, Korhal**

Mayor Kirkwood rubbed his temples and sighed in frustration at his desk as the Korhal City officials gave him the reports on the latest developments in the city and its immediate surroundings. Emperor Mengsk had left the city 3 days ago, and had assured him that he would do everything in his power to prevent the situation in Korhal City from deteriorating further. Yet for all of the Dominion emperor's boasts, there had been virtually no changes whatsoever within the city.

Kirkwood had requested that a minimum of 25,000 tons of food, fuel, and medical supplies be sent into the city on a daily basis and that would help reduce the levels of rioting and theft throughout the city. Yet after 72 hours had passed, only a total of 40 tons of supplies had reached the city, far below even the most minimal requirements. To compound matters, 29 out of the 40 tons of supplies were vespene gas supplies, which were not the primary concern of the inhabitants given the fact that the Odin attacks had reduced entire streets to rubble. Despite the efforts to clear it, traffic for civilian vehicles remained a severe problem.

Only 7 tons were food supplies, and this was nowhere close to feeding even the slightest bit of the whole Korhal City population. Yet to tell the people of the food arrival would spark even further chaos within the city. There was obviously no way to hide the fact from them that the relief supplies had fallen far below the minimal expectations and requirements necessary. Perhaps in the short run of a few days there was a chance, but certainly no longer than a week.

The same was going to be true of the medical supplies, which were obviously too little to make much of a difference to the continued number of wounded from the overcrowded hospitals. All of his officials had made it clear that unless the food supply flowing into Korhal City accelerated dramatically and immediately, the small scale rioting within the city would eventually become total riots, and the police force would have no way to control it.

Yet to keep this from the Korhal City inhabitants would be even worse. While a few of the wealthy people in the city devoted what resources they still had left to help out the common people and make their lives a little bit better and more convenient, the majority of them did little to integrate themselves with the city's population, usually tending to have an attitude that they were above the common people. In the occasional times of scarce resources during the four years of peace following the Brood War, such wealthy people of Korhal City did nothing to ingratiate themselves with the inhabitants.

Now that they had no choice in the matter, it was obvious to most that the wealthy people having been reduced to living in the ghetto would immediately jump at the opportunity for supplies to secure better living conditions and provisions for themselves, while completely ignoring the welfare of the other inhabitants.

Of course, the rest of the city inhabitants would never allow such a thing to occur. Having lived in non-luxurious conditions compared to the wealthy people for so long, it meant that they would take longer to recover, relief supplies or not. If the wealthy got their hands on the supplies first, Kirkwood had no doubt that the Korhal City police would report cases of homicide against such people.

In either case, the mayor had a very sympathetic view for the entire city population, not just the wealthy people. Granted many of them had lost almost everything in the aftermath of the Odin attacks, but with the exception of a few, the vast majority of the wealthy did not take the easy way out and commit suicide. It was Kirkwood's hope that the relief supplies would be distributed evenly among the population to ensure equality and that everyone would be given a fair share of the amenities to survive. The rich would not be favored over the poor, and vice versa.

Unfortunately, this depended on the Dominion relief efforts, and so far Kirkwood has been extremely unimpressed. To try and evenly distribute the 40 tons of supplies to the local population would achieve virtually nothing, as he would be hearing requests from the inhabitants for more supplies in less than an hour afterwards.

The only good news about these supplies would be that the vespene gas could be used as a means to help the homeless stay warm at night, but even then this would be extremely dangerous. Some of the homeless have already tried this method by draining the vespene gas out of vehicles, the rubble strewn streets made it too difficult to navigate with them. The siphoned vespene was then used to start fires to keep warm at nightfall, and for cooking during the daytime. Unfortunately, as some of the homeless had discovered to their cost, vespene gas proved to be highly flammable, and unless done very carefully, there was a very probable chance that people could accidentally set themselves on fire. This had been confirmed by the Korhal City's hospitals, as some of the patients in the wards had suffered third-degree burns.

This problem was being rectified by people who had greater expertise on handling vespene gas, and Kirkwood had been relieved to hear that recently, these people had been teaching others on how to better handle the vespene and to avoid such incidents.

While the mayor was glad to hear that there were times where the people stuck together, the overall picture continued to become more and more gloomy. While he had agreed with the emperor that the people of Korhal were a civilized society, this was based on a number of assumptions. Among the most glaring ones was the fact that the machines were running and relief came in the face of immediate danger. For more than three months since James Raynor had used the Odin war machine to devastate the city, virtually no relief had come and the city's machines were badly mauled. In the absence of these two critical factors, the picture began to change dramatically.

All over the city, the civilians' morale were steadily deteriorating. Reports were coming in more and more frequently as the local population cursed the emperor for his promises of relief, most of which were now being seen as nothing more than hollow words and not to be taken seriously. The shortages of food meant that ration thefts were starting to become a severe problem amongst the civilians, and the exploitation of the helpless people was becoming a very real possibility. In one of the reports, in one hospital wing, a slightly injured patient who still had the ability to walk stole hospital rations from other patients who had suffered injuries too great and had to be confined to bed.

One of his officials leaned in close to Kirkwood. "Sir, you can't avoid the locals forever. We can tell the people that you're holed up in your office trying your utmost to help out everyone in the city, but sooner or later they are going to stop buying that story."

"I know that, but without an increased supply rate of from the Dominion, what more can I do?" the mayor said, shaking his head.

"Do we know if more Dominion transports are on their way to the city now?" another asked.

"I've been trying to contact them for hours without any luck," Kirkwood said, frustrated. "It's been the same for the past few days, and now they're getting tired of me pestering them all the time."

"But this is the Dominion throne world! What could possibly be more important than helping out the people right here on Korhal?"

"Even I don't know the answer to that. All I know is that the rumors are circulating about how the emperor is abandoning his own people right here on the throne world."

"Do you believe that, sir?" Another official asked.

Kirkwood let out a sigh. "I sincerely hope it's not true, but all the events have certainly pointed in that direction. It's not that the emperor hasn't provided any relief at all, but they're so small in scale that it's almost negligible."

"So what do we do? The people may not have much faith in the emperor right now, but a lot of them still trust you to bail them out of this mess."

"And I still have every intention of doing just that," the mayor replied. "I'll give the Dominion relief effort another 24 to 48 hours. If more relief supplies come into Korhal City during that time, great. If not, I'm going to contact other cities on Korhal. They all know what happened here, so they are fully aware of what my people are going through. Hopefully, that'll be enough to get them to send us the supplies needed to maintain order around here and prevent total chaos from breaking out."

"Even they take time to transport the food supplies from across the planet, sir."

"I know," Kirkwood said, sighing. "Send word out to all of the bakeries that have received either little or no raids from the locals. For those that have their own security, make sure that those measures are increased. Inform the bakeries that their bread loaves are not to be sold to the citizens until they're at least 2 or 3 days old. This way, the bread could be sliced thinner and therefore it might last longer. It's only a stop gap solution, but hopefully it can achieve something in the short run."

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Jim walked along the frontlines, giving encouragement to his troops, all of whom remained uncomfortable fighting alongside Kim's soldiers. During firefights with incoming Zerg attack waves, they could be counted on to perform their duties at hand, but the tensions sank right back in the moment there was a lull in the fighting.

He saw that Colonel Kim herself was not exactly a commander who refused to put herself at risk either. Like himself, she too fought on the frontlines against the Zerg, and Raynor had to admit that her leadership had certainly held her troops in line despite the going becoming more and more rough.

The Zerg certainly weren't making defending their position any easier. Despite the vast amounts of rubble in the city to make artificial barriers, they could be easily destroyed by the heavier Zerg creatures. As the last attack had shown, this was exactly what had happened when the Zerg spearheaded the attack with Ultralisks in an attempt to quickly smash through the barriers. A few of them took longer than expected to break through, but the majority of them stood little chance against the massive Zerg beasts. Both he and Kim had ordered that Spider Mines be laid near the barriers as an added defense, but the Ultralisks' thick carapace and rapid regenerative abilities had allowed them to push forward considerably before they were finally brought down under a hail of autocannon fire from the Goliath walkers.

The Reapers had made excellent use of their explosive D-8 charges that continued to slow down the attack of advancing Roaches, while the Siege Tanks had made short work of the mass hordes of Zerglings. Only a few of them were able to get through their artillery barrages to reach the marines, and they were quickly mowed down by their C-14 Gauss Rifles.

"Sir, we may have a bigger problem to this than we thought," one of the Banshee pilots spoke to him over the communicator.

"What is it?" Jim asked. "We're holding up just fine right now against the Zerg. True we can't keep this up forever, but as long as the engineers do their work and get the power to the rails back online, we can get out of here very shortly."

"The Zerg seemed to have caught on to that, sir," came the reply. "We're seeing more and more Mutalisk activity in the air, but they're not aiming for you."

"So where are they headed?"

"They're attacking the rail network, commander. It seemed like they've finally smartened up and know that there's little chance of catching up with the train, so they're trying to cut off your escape routes. We've been doing what we can to protect the rails, but the Mutalisk attacks have been getting heavier and heavier."

Raynor scowled in frustration. "How much damage are we talking here?"

"Well for the time being, the railway leading to Giddings Station and Tarsonis Starport are both still functional. The Dominion engineers had certainly done their work in the restoration on the network here."

"Very well," the rebel commander said. "Send me the exact coordinates of these attacks. I'll dispatch more engineers to the area immediately if the rails suffer any more damage."

"Right away, sir."

Jim transmitted the coordinates to the engineers on the field, before speaking into the communicator once more. "Anything else unusual to report?"

"Well, we have also detected mass concentrations of Overlords dropping Zerg Drones around the rail lines, although I don't understand why. Drones have extremely weak attacks, they can't cause any harm to the whole rail system."

The commander thought about this for only a second. "No, but they _can_ move rubble onto it to block us, and Tarsonis City is full of that. Send word to the rest of the flyboys. Any Zerg Drone spotted near the rails is to be killed immediately. We cannot afford for them to cut off our escape route."

"Commander, sir!" One of his officers came running up to him and saluted.

"Take a moment to catch your breath, soldier," Jim said calmly to him. "You have something to report?"

"Yes, sir. As you are aware, we are positioned right at the excavation area where the Dominion had hoped to unearth more Confederate military secrets and technologies."

"I take it that something has been found," Raynor replied. "What is it?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself, sir," the officer answered. "Please come with me. I think this is something you have to see for yourself."


	76. Chapter 76

**Author's Note: So in the past chapters I've only told of the Raiders on Tarsonis and Dead Man's Rock. But maybe a lot of you forgot that wasn't _all_ the Raiders, just a small number of them. Most of the Raiders are actually still on Aiur and recovering from their battle with the Protoss against the Zerg there. I thought maybe it's time to turn back to them again, so that you know they haven't been forgotten or anything like that.  
**

**As always, please read and review and I'll see you next time.**

* * *

Chapter 76

**Raider's Base, Aiur**

The lab doors slid open and Dr. Hanson turned around to see a few Dominion scientists walk in, accompanied by General Warfield. "General," she greeted. "I wasn't expecting company here."

"I'm sorry to drop in unannounced, doctor," the Dominion general replied. "But you have been doing your research on the relic for a few days now that the wounded during our battle on Aiur have been mostly taken care of. Raynor considered you a genius like no other, capable of learning the sciences faster than almost anyone he's ever heard of. I also heard that you spent a great deal of time aboard the Hyperion."

"It's true," Hanson said. "When the Agria farming colony was completely overrun by the Zerg, Jim and his Raiders came had helped my people. Casualties obviously were inevitable, but thanks to him and his troops, the vast majority of my people were able to reach the Colony Ships and escape."

"You certainly didn't seem to press the issue to him with regards to the Zerg virus outbreak on Meinhoff."

"His Raiders may be strong, but they still have limitations. I knew what could be achieved with the resources at Jim's disposal and what could not. It was for this reason that I only made slight mentions of the violence and disease happening on Meinhoff while he gathered more resources for his revolution."

"And how did you feel about that part?" Warfield asked.

"After I had learned of the transmissions on the Confederate adjutant about Mengsk's crimes regarding what really happened on Tarsonis, I too was furious, though I was greatly concerned about the backlashes and what would happen if Jim actually got that information to go public. Given all the rioting that happened after what happened on Korhal, well that part didn't surprise me one bit. Jim and Matt both told me this marked the beginning of the revolution where justice would finally be served."

"By that time a lot of my troops were still fighting to repel the Zerg invasion waves. Clearly the broadcast had a detrimental effect on them. Many didn't believe Mengsk could be so heartless, while others were furious at Raynor for sending the whole Dominion into chaos. Regardless of how you cut it, the fact is that the Korhal broadcasts had almost all of my boys greatly distracted from focusing on their task at hand of dealing with the Zerg. Not that it was unjustified or anything like that. Even I couldn't completely focus on dealing with the Zerg in the immediate aftermath of those broadcasts, especially given the fact that I was on Korhal when it happened. Mengsk specifically ordered me to stop Raynor from sending the message through the UNN towers, but he succeeded anyway."

"My feelings about what happened on Korhal are slightly mixed, even though I was glad Jim had accomplished his mission," Hanson said. "On one hand, we were in the middle of dealing with the Zerg invasion, so it was certainly not a good time to be fighting amongst ourselves. After all, you don't see the Zerg killing each other for positions of power. But on the other hand, I was glad to see that Mengsk being portrayed as a criminal and the public expressing their anger at him. Jim's actions on Korhal meant that everything the public believed in the Dominion turned out to be a lie, and that the emperor himself was actually a mass murderer instead of a savior of humanity."

"You didn't seem to favor the guy even before that," Warfield pointed out.

"Because he doesn't even seem to care about his own people," the doctor replied. "By the time Jim came to Agria, the defenses at the evacuation starport were just barely holding under the constant Zerg attack waves. If it weren't for him, even those would have been overrun, which would have allowed the Zerg to overrun the entire starport as well, and none of us would have been able to get off the planet alive. The same was true for the situation on Meinhoff, where the emperor chose to do nothing about the problem. It's almost as if he simply expected the problem to just fade away without lifting a finger, yet he still expected everyone to show unquestioning loyalty towards him."

Warfield nodded. "I know. Given that, the numbers don't exactly add up. I was still in retirement when the Zerg invasion began, but I was appalled to hear that Mengsk chose to just withdraw the Dominion fleet back so the core worlds would be defended, while leaving the fringe worlds to their fate."

"Did you raise the matter with him?" Hanson asked.

"Just once, when he announced that I would be leading the Dominion forces to crush the Zerg threat. I told him that abandoning the Dominion Fringe Worlds was not a good idea as millions of people would be slaughtered by the Zerg. Mengsk's response was that given my military experience, I should know that sometimes it's necessary to make difficult decisions on the battlefield."

The doctor rolled her eyes. "You mean the concept of where a small sacrifice is necessary in order to achieve the greater good? General, I hope you know that concept has its limitations to it. It's one thing to sacrifice a few dozen lives in order to save the lives of tens of thousands. It's a completely different matter to sacrifice millions of lives in order to save billions more. The former you can call making strategic decisions in battle, the latter is nothing more than a complete disregard for human lives."

She held up her hand before Warfield could say anything. "I know when it comes to invading planets, the Zerg can move very quickly. But that's beside the point. I learned from Jim that Mengsk didn't even make the slightest attempt to look into the fringe worlds, which meant he could have cared less if everyone there got killed by the Zerg."

"I understand, but that's all behind us now," the general said. "The Zerg invasion is over, your people are safe and back on Agria once again, and we're in a position to weaken Mengsk's hold on the Dominion even more, maybe even topple him from the throne altogether."

"But that's not what you came here for," Dr. Hanson stated.

"Correct. I came here to see if you have found out anything new about that Xel'Naga artifact," Warfield explained. "It certainly took a lot of effort on my part to convince the Protoss to pull the fragments out from underneath their capital city of Antioch, and even now they're still not exactly pleased to see it in our hands for research and examination."

Hanson sighed. Jim had told her about this as soon as they began to head into Aiur's atmosphere. While the Protoss also had their share of researchers and scholars, they also had extreme fanaticism when it came to their religion and the people they worship. In this case, the ancient Xel'Naga had created them, which meant that anything and everything that had any relation to the Xel'Naga would be considered sacred to the Protoss, and they saw it as their mission to ensure that such treasures are well preserved and taken care of, namely in their hands. To see the relics in the hands of terrans certainly did not sit well with them.

To that end she could agree with them to some extent. Like the Protoss, humans by nature also sought out knowledge, and alien artifacts could certainly provide a wealth of just that. However it was more of how that knowledge was used that revealed the nature of humans. According to Jim, the Protoss right now are broken into two main sects: the Khalai and the Nerazim. The former did not have much ties to the Xel'Naga anymore, but would still safeguard any and all Xel'Naga artifacts from hostile intruders. The latter on the other hand still worshipped the Xel'Naga as their gods, and are obsessed with trying to understand the true purpose that the Xel'Naga had created them for. A great deal of them also actively sought out Xel'Naga artifacts and relics, a complete contrast compared to the Khalai Protoss.

In the case with this particular Xel'Naga artifact, the Protoss were even more reluctant to give them access to it given its destructive power. After Jim had told her of what it had done to the Zerg on Char, Hanson was inclined to agree. Nevertheless, upon their arrival on Aiur, her theories about the artifact being dangerous to Protoss as well were vindicated, a contrast compared to terrans, to which it seemed to have no effect on at all.

Still, the Protoss could argue that the relic could be turned into a dangerous weapon against them just as it had been against the Zerg, and Dr. Hanson knew that it wouldn't be long before they would demand that the terrans hand the artifact back for it to be in Protoss possession once more. Because of that, every moment she spent examining the artifact would be vital in order to learn of its capabilities and purpose.

"There has been little I have been able to discover about the artifact," she said finally. "In fragment form, they're inert, though are still harmful to the Protoss if they get too close to it."

"Does it have any effect on humans?" Warfield asked. "When that thing was fully assembled on Char and ready for use, Raynor explained that by being close to it he could hear strange voices and at time to time see strange visions that weren't supposed to be there. I don't know how exactly that's possible, but it seems to suggest we're not _completely_ immune to whatever the artifact can do."

"I'm not sure about that," Hanson admitted. "I've been examining this relic for days and haven't experienced what you're describing. It's possible that this artifact affects each person differently. In the case with Jim, it's possible it was exploiting some sort of emotion he had with Kerrigan and was just messing with his head."

"That's actually a good point, and one I also hoped you could answer," Warfield explained. "Because until we know exactly what this Xel'Naga artifact does, we don't really know just what it did to the former Queen of Blades. Yes, everything about her looks human again, but I've seen more than enough cases in my life where looks can be very deceiving."

"I was telling Jim the same thing on Haven. I for one am not sure the artifact fully reversed the infestation on her or anything like that. From the few tests I ran on Kerrigan there, it would seem as if the artifact had evolved her or something, though I can't seem to determine just what."

Hanson thought about it for a moment longer, before a thought suddenly came to her. "Can't you contact Prince Valerian and ask him? Jim made it clear that it was he and his Möebius Foundation that wanted this artifact so badly and reached out to the Raider to get it, so surely they have to have some idea."

"It's a possibility," the general admitted. "Unlike the emperor himself, that boy doesn't share his father's enthusiasm for the military might of the Dominion. Before the Zerg invasion, the two of them were rebuilding the Dominion to make it a rule of might, but Valerian also wanted it to be one of arts and sciences as well."

"That's his passion then." It was more of a statement than a question.

Warfield nodded. "The boy has a great interest in archeology, a complete contrast to the emperor. Though on the other hand, Mengsk did support him in such projects. Of course even Valerian is smart enough to know that his father had ulterior motives for doing this. Just take the Xel'Naga artifact you're examining right now. It's great for the arts and sciences, but it also has its military applications given what it's capable of doing to the Zerg."

"It would explain why the emperor supported his interests," Hanson agreed, shaking her head in disgust. "The guy hopes that if his son can find alien relics that could be used as weapons, the guy will just seize it for himself to get more power."

"It's one of the things I'm deeply concerned about what Valerian is doing," Warfield frowned. "It's not that his love for arts and sciences is a bad thing or anything like that, nor is it a bad idea for his intent to turn the Dominion into a wealth of arts and sciences. The problem is that after everything I've been through after what happened on Char, it's pretty damn obvious that some of these alien artifacts are not just toys to be put in a museum and displayed to the public. Hell, in some cases, you so much as even remove it from where you got it from and it could have disastrous consequences."

"You're saying his interest for archeology could be making things worse?" Hanson asked.

"It's certainly a possibility. The point is, in the greater scope of things, we don't know how things are all going to play out. All I can say for certain is that the alien artifacts exist for a reason. I don't know what exactly that reason is, but I'm pretty sure it's not along the lines to be taken by people who just wanted it on display to show it off to the public. I'm concerned that what Valerian is doing with his frequent adventures in obtaining more and more alien artifacts could eventually backfire on him."

"I'll agree with you there, general. Still, I believe you should contact the prince. I may be a quick learner, but I'm still just one person, and apart from the couple of weeks this Xel'Naga artifact spent aboard the Hyperion and what I'm doing now, I haven't exactly had a chance study it very closely."

"Neither has the Möebius Foundation," Warfield pointed out. "Don't forget, all their research on this thing had been done without actually being in its physical presence. You on the other hand have the advantage of actually seeing it up close."

"Maybe so, but I still can't really determine what this thing is capable of besides absorbing Zerg and Protoss energy. If the Möebius Foundation has anything else, it'd be best to know right away."

Warfield gave the doctor a curt nod, before turning about and heading towards the door. "I'll leave these scientists here to assist you in any way possible, doctor. I'll see if I can raise Valerian on Korhal, and ask him to send us all the data he's got on this artifact. It may not be much, but you're right, every little bit helps. I just hope the way we used it back on Char hadn't screwed things up in the greater picture."

"You really think that could have happened?" Hanson frowned.

"It's possible," the general answered. "Look, just because this artifact kills Zerg doesn't mean that's what it was designed to do. And it's pretty obvious that this thing wasn't meant to be used just as a means to turn Kerrigan human again. I'll be sure to let Valerian know that whatever his Möebius boys know about this thing, even if it's just theories and conjectures, it'd be best to tell us about it."

* * *

**Bridge, Dominion Command BattleCruiser, High Orbit Over Dead Man's Rock**

The door slid open, and Dominion officers saluted as General Ridgeway entered the bridge, having departed the Dominion base at the Toxic Slums on Dead Man's Rock and returning to his command BattleCruiser. One of the officers gestured him to the communicator console.

"I take it it's the emperor?" the general asked. Off the officer's nod, he sighed. "Patch it through."

Mengsk's face came on the screen. "And here I was thinking my Dominion generals are people of courage, Ridgeway. Now your troops are going to accusing you of abandoning them on the battlefield. Not exactly the best way to raise troop morale since now they're going to accuse you of saving yourself without even given your soldiers even the slightest thought."

"Actually, I discussed this with my boys down there. They accepted this as necessary for me to get back up in orbit. They may value their lives, but they also know that when it comes to battlefield losses, the soldiers can be replaced at a faster rate compared to officers. You kill off too many of the officers, their talents are lost, and then the only way to fill the gap is to promote younger people to their rank, which would end up being something they aren't prepared for at all."

"Be that as it may, I for one feel your troops perform much better with your presence at the base," Mengsk folded his arms. "Now then, what's the status of the enemy? Are the base defenses holding up?"

Ridgeway shook his head. "Not when you have Thors pounding at them, emperor. The bunkers and auto-turrets there stood little chance against their 250mm cannons, most were reduced to rubble in less than 30 minutes during the artillery barrage."

"And the air situation?"

"The BattleCruisers we've got are keeping the Raiders' BattleCruisers busy, but unfortunately it's also preventing us from using them to engage the smaller fighter crafts fighting for control over the sky. The mercenaries have the old Confederate Avengers and Kel-Morian Hellhounds, which can easily be shot down by our Wraiths and Vikings, but the Raiders have modern equipment just like us, and this is exactly the reason why we haven't been able to knock them down as quickly as we hoped for. The casualties in the air for the mercs are still appalling, that's quite obvious. But so far, it just hasn't been heavy enough to get them to break off the attack."

He shook his head and continued, "The problem however is that when you combine all the mercenary organizations on Dead Man's Rock, their air power is actually a lot more than what we had anticipated. This wouldn't have been a problem if they had no Raiders assistance, but that's not the case here. By the time I left the base to return to orbit, the mercenaries were slowly starting to gain control of the skies."

"What about on the ground? Your Thors should have been able to pound all the mercenaries to dust."

"Not in the face of all the Banshee attacks," Ridgeway said, frustrated. "The Thors don't have very strong anti-air defenses, they need Vikings and Wraiths to help them out in that manner, but they're all being used to deal with all the mercenary craft in the air."

Mengsk gritted his teeth in anger. "And how far have the bastards penetrated into the base?"

"They've already broken through the outer defense perimeter," the general reported. "By the time I left, the middle defense line was starting to crack as well. Because we never anticipated that the mercenaries would have the Raiders' support, the defense plan for the base focused only on the outer and middle lines. Very little effort was made to strengthen the inner defense belt, which means that unless the Raiders and mercenaries are bled to death in assaulting the middle defense line, the inner defenses would be quickly overrun. If that should happen, they would have a relatively clear path to the toxic waste disposal facility where the warheads are being kept."

"Do you believe that's what they're doing?"

The general nodded. "The mercenaries have been on Dead Man's Rock much longer than us, sir. So it's pretty obvious that they would know that the waste facility is the best place to hide the nukes until they're ready for deployment."

"I'll accept that, but what about your troops on the ground? Aren't they doing anything to hold off the advance? After all, even if the mercenaries are foolish enough just bury the facility, the Raider would be smart enough to know that we can just dig the nukes back out. Therefore, they'd have to send ground troops to try and retrieve them."

"The Grizzlies are doing their job in their bombing runs, but they're not exactly effective against the Thors. The mercenaries have access to Goliath walkers too, sir. Combined with those of the Raiders, they're making the job very difficult to inflict the necessary casualties. The Raiders brought with them plenty of Medivac Dropships, and their rapid deployment on the battlefield is the reason why the Grizzlies are not producing the results I'm hoping for."

Mengsk did not look pleased. "What about the Spider Mines that your Vultures had laid on the defensive lines? You said it yourself that the Raiders and the mercenaries are hammering at the middle one, aren't those producing the adequate results?"

"Only in a few of the sectors," Ridgeway said in frustration. "For the others, well let's just say someone down there is ruining the entire defense plan."

"What are you talking about?"

"With the exception of the Thor walkers, the Spider Mines are very effective against just about any other ground target. The problem however is they've all been programmed to detonate once they have impacted with their target, whether it'd be marines, Marauders, Reapers, Firebats, Goliaths, Siege Tanks, Vultures, or anything else they come across. The key to their success depends upon making impact with their intended target. Until that actually happens, they're little more than paperweights."

Ridgeway then pressed a button on the console, as the battle on Dead Man's Rock continued to unfold. "Kerrigan is using her psionic abilities as some sort of barrier. I don't quite understand how the hell she's doing this, but apparently the barrier is so strong that it's preventing the Spider Mines from passing through it. Because of that, they aren't able to impact their targets, and therefore aren't detonating. Exposed out in the open, the revealed Spider Mines are easy prey for small arms fire."

The emperor looked angry. "And you're not capitalizing on this? While she's using her energy doing that she would be vulnerable to attack! I gave you an order to have her killed! Did you completely forget about that?"

"Of course not, but apparently despite everything she's done as the Queen of Blades, the Raiders and mercenaries fighting on the ground seem to trust her. She may be more vulnerable as you said, but there's also a reason why there's so many Raider and mercenary foot soldiers accompanying her. She's using her psionic abilities to protect them, so they're protecting her from my troops."

Mengsk shook his head in disgust. "I don't see how you can possibly say she is difficult to kill, Ridgeway. In case you forgot, she's human again. Whatever powers the Zerg gave her during the infestation process, they've all been taken from her. The alien artifact that was used on Char had permanently severed her connection and control to the whole swarm. She has no Zerg army behind her back anymore. With the exception of maybe James Raynor, everyone else wants her head on a platter for all the people she's murdered and all the suffering she's caused."

"I don't exactly care as to _why_ the Raiders and mercenaries are willing to trust and fight alongside her," the general countered. "That point's irrelevant. The only thing that matters is what I see in front of me, and that's that they seem to be willing to trust her to fight against us. That's going to make her extremely dangerous, regardless of what's happened to her."

"Are you even listening?" Mengsk scoffed. "She's not the Queen of Blades anymore. She's as vulnerable as any other human being on the battlefield now. She's not going to be able to take hundreds of artillery shells fired from Siege Tanks and still keep fighting, not anymore. If one of them hits her, she'll die instantly."

"All right, assuming that's true, the fact remains that she was the Confederacy's fiercest ghost operative. Now, given the way she's been fighting down there, I'd say it's pretty obvious she hasn't exactly lost her touch from those days. You know as well as I do how deadly ghosts can be. It's exactly the reason why the Dominion ghosts are sent to do the most difficult Dominion missions because the alternative would the lives of way too many Dominion marines. This makes them extremely dangerous while fighting on the frontlines, regardless of who their opponent is."

"So what are you doing about the situation?"

"Right now I've given orders to my boys and kill as many of the Raiders and mercenaries flanking her. If we can eliminate enough of them, Kerrigan will be more vulnerable to attack, and hopefully by then we'll still have enough firepower left to finish her off."

Mengsk rubbed his chin for a moment. "Move some of your troops into the toxic waste facility, general. That's where you can trap Kerrigan."

"How so?" Ridgeway asked.

"As far as the Raiders and mercenaries are concerned, they only know the nukes are being hidden in that facility. They don't know the _exact_ location in there," the emperor explained. "That means the mercenaries know they can't just kick the door down and go in guns blazing because a stray shot may end up setting the nukes off. Ghost operatives are trained to paint targets for nuclear strikes, and they're also trained to recover nuclear weapons to prevent them from falling into enemy hands and using it against the Dominion later on. Kerrigan would have to enter the facility alone to ensure that no one does anything stupid like setting off a nuclear bomb. Given the dilapidated state the waste facility is in, it'll be the perfect place to box her in and kill her."

Ridgeway gave a nod of acknowledgement. "I will pull troops to the facility immediately, emperor."

"Don't fail me, general," Mengsk warned. "Kerrigan has been a thorn in my side for too long. She should have been disposed of back on Char, but Raynor ruined my plans. Luckily for us, she decided to show herself on Dead Man's Rock, and we now get another crack at this. I suggest you make sure that this one doesn't slip through our hands. If it does, well who knows when we'll get another opportunity."

* * *

**Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char**

Ulrezaj looked on at the sights of the new Zerg creatures before him. The Dark Archon was somewhat split on the feelings he was having in the aftermath of the results of the newly forged warped Khaydarin Crystals. On one hand, the results had yielded what he had expected in enhancing the Zerg swarm. However on the other hand, when it came to actually creating entirely different Zerg strains, the results had not proven to be as successful as he had hoped for.

In terms of the enhancing the individual Zerg creatures from their original strains, the warped Khaydarin Crystals had proved to be a remarkable success. Many of the Zerglings had been greatly enhanced, and their genetic strands were now identical to those of the Devouring Ones, a special genetic breed of Zerglings that had proven itself time and time again to be much more effective compared to its original counterpart. The same was true of the Hydralisks, many of them now matched the genetic strands of Hunter Killers, with increased size and thicker carapaces, which made them extremely deadly on the battlefield.

With regards to genetically enhancing the Ultralisks to Torrasques, it proved to be more difficult. Compared to the genetic codes of the Roach, Hydralisk and Zergling, the Ultralisk's genetic code was significantly harder to replicate. While still used in mass numbers by the Zerg swarm, the Ultralisks were less abundant compared to the smaller, faster, and more agile Zerg breeds. Although the warped Khaydarin Crystals had proven themselves successful in breeding a few Torrasque-type Ultralisks, the Dark Archon felt that the current specialized breeds for the Ultralisk in the form of the massive Brutalisk and Omegalisk, as well as the more agile form of the smaller Pygalisk would be adequately suited to the upcoming battles ahead and continued efforts to successfully breed the Torrasque form of the Ultralisk was not necessary.

Instead, Ulrezaj had focused his energies on one of the major weaknesses the Ultralisk displayed in the form of its lack of agility or maneuverability on the battlefield. The massive beast was known to trample over allied Zerg creatures in order to reach its destination more rapidly, but the Dark Archon knew from his experience in dealing with the Zerg, the vile creatures were far from mere cannon fodder to be expended for the greater good, and for that reason it was better to find a way to preserve the lives of some of the Zerg creatures in order to ensure that they would be even more formidable on the battlefield.

In the case with the Ultralisk, the warped Khaydarin Crystals had greatly improved upon this, and Ulrezaj was able to incorporate such features directly into the Zerg larvae so that future Ultralisk breeds would be able to share the same enhancements that the warped Khaydarin Crystals had brought upon.

By exposing the Ultralisks to the combination of Zerg and Tal'darim energy, it had now been successfully given what is considered to be a burrow charging ability. Originally, the Dark Archon had hoped to enhance the Ultralisk to have the burrowing capabilities similar to that of the Roach and being able to move underground while burrowed. This would allow the massive Zerg creatures to pop up from behind enemy positions and easily tear them apart with their Kaiser Blades. Unfortunately, the results had fallen short of expectations, and while the Ultralisks were now finally able to move while burrowed, it was only for a relatively short distance before they were forced to return to the surface.

However, this had been compensated by the sheer ferocity of their unburrowing ability in resurfacing from under the ground. Rather than unburrowing normally as other Zerg creatures would, the Ultralisks would instead charge up out of the ground in a form of an attack. To test out this theory, Ulrezaj had used some of the Tal'darim Colossi walkers to participate in such trials.

The results had proven highly successful. Rather than getting within range of their Kaiser Blades, the Ultralisks now burrowed once they were within striking distance of the massive walkers. By burrowing beneath the ground, they were able to avoid the Colossi thermal lances. In addition, by their charging attacks while popping up from underground, the Ultralisks were able to get within close range of the Colossi and thus gain the advantage due to the latter's ineffectiveness against such close range targets.

A further test had been conducted by using the Protoss Sentries. Since arriving on Char, among the common tactics while dealing with the mass hordes of Zerg was to utilize the Sentry's force field ability, and this had led to entire legions of Zerg being slaughtered on the battlefield. It was a simple matter of using adequate quantities of force fields to box the Zerg attackers within a contained area. Once this had been accomplished, Protoss Colossi, Immortals, Stalkers, Sentries, and Void Rays would unleash their thermal lances, phase disruptors, particle disruptors, disruption beams, and prismatic beams to attack the Zerg creatures from a distance and reduce them to ashes.

However with the burrow charge ability of the Ultralisk, such a tactic was rendered significantly less effective. As proof of this, the trial results had shown that the force fields used to box the massive Zerg creatures in were above ground, which meant that by moving under the earth, the Ultralisks were able to bypass the force fields and pop up from the ground to take the Sentries by surprise, and the smaller Protoss robotic drones stood little chances against the Ultralisks' Kaiser Blades.

Attempts had also been made to incorporate the burrow charging ability into the massive Brutalisk and Omegalisk beasts, but this had proven to be unsuccessful. Both creatures dwarfed the Ultralisk in size, and although there were some improvements to their speed and maneuverability on the battlefield, the burrow charge ability eluded them. Nevertheless, it was not a significant loss. Both creatures were more difficult to breed, so the granting the ability to only the Ultralisk would prove sufficient in the battles ahead.

To improve upon the Zerg Lurker, Ulrezaj had taken characteristics of the massive Brood Lords and using the warped Khaydarin Crystals to combine their DNA with that those of the Lurkers. The resulting creature was a four legged beast known as a Swarm Host. In comparison to the Lurker, the Swarm Host's physical appearances initially would give the impression that its performance would be relatively the same. While able to move at a faster rate than the Lurker, the Swarm Host also possessed a thinner carapace and therefore could be subdued on the battlefield more quickly. In addition, despite combining the DNA of the Brood Lord with that of the Lurker, the Swarm Host still shared the Lurker's weakness in that it had no defensive capabilities whatsoever while it was above ground, and could only attack while burrowed. To compound matters, the Swarm Host could not attack directly on its own, a stark contrast to the Zerg Lurker.

However, this was compensated by the one characteristic that Ulrezaj had improved upon in the form of the attack range. The Brood Lord constantly used its Broodlings to strike at targets on the ground, and they had proven to be devastating to Zealots, Stalkers, Immortals, Sentries, and Colossi. While the Brood Lord itself had a limited attack range, the Broodlings themselves could crawl towards their targets and attack.

The same was true with the Swarm Host. Once burrowed into the ground, the creature possessed the ability to spawn Locusts from the massive sac on its back. As in the case with the Brood Lord, the Swarm Host's sac was capable of continuously breeding the Locusts, and like the Broodlings, they too were capable of crawling rapidly towards their targets.

What made the Locusts more effective, however, was their improved carapace. While the Broodlings were extremely dangerous in swarms, they were little more than a minor annoyance individually, lacking the durability to withstand punishment from the psionic blades of Zealots. The Locusts on the other hand had been subjected to Zerg and Tal'darim energies of the warped Khaydarin Crystals, and this gave them enhanced durability and thus a greater chance to kill their targets before succumbing to enemy fire.

DNA combination had also been done to create a new form of Zerg flyer in the hopes to replace the lumbering Brood Lord. Unfortunately, Ulrezaj's hopes that their DNA could be combined with that of the Mutalisk were dashed due to their incompatibility. Nevertheless, the Dark Archon had found an alternative to all this by combining the DNA of the Brood Lord with that of the Zerg Infestor, as well as one of the more rare Zerg creatures that existed within the Zerg breeds: the Defiler.

It had been clear that the Defiler had been mostly phased out in the Zerg swarm by the Infestor, though the occasional creature still existed, and such was exactly the case when he and his Tal'darim forces had assaulted Kerrigan's hive cluster on Char. The Defiler itself contained the DNA of other Zerg breeds, and uses them to synthesize virus-like biochemicals that were dangerous even to allied Zerg units. On the other hand, the Infestor's fungal growth ability showed no such hazard to its allies, and perhaps it was for this reason that the Queen of Blades had shown greater preference for the Infestor.

Nevertheless, Ulrezaj used the warp Khaydarin Crystals to combine the genetic strands of the Defiler and Infestor together, and then incorporated them into the Brood Lord. The end result was a winged creature known as the Viper, which was significantly faster in flight speed compared to the Brood Lord, though not as fast as the Mutalisk. In addition, unlike the Brood Lord, the Viper had no offensive capabilities of its own, but the combination of Defiler and Infestor DNA had greatly made up for this.

From his own experiences in dealing with the Zerg four years ago, Ulrezaj had known that on the body of the Defiler were countless organisms that feed off one another, yet the creature had the ability to launch them all at its Zerg allies. This would then create a temporary protective cloud of organisms known as the Dark Swarm and shielding any and all Zerg creatures within it from harm. By incorporating Defile DNA into the Viper, it had resulted in a similar ability known as the Blinding Cloud.

Unlike the Defiler's Dark Swarm, the Viper's Blinding Cloud was not to be used on allied Zerg creatures, but rather against the enemy. To conduct test trials, Ulrezaj had experimented this ability on Tal'darim Sentries. The Blinding Cloud also comprised of mass swarms of tiny organisms, and this greatly reduced the effectiveness of the Sentries' disruption beams and limiting their range. The Dark Archon was confident that this would allow Zerglings and Ultralisks, both of which had no ranged attacks, to quickly get within range and tear their enemies apart.

An equally devastating ability was taken by incorporating Infestor DNA into the creature, specifically the neural parasite tentacle attack used by the Infestor. As Ulrezaj had seen upon arriving on Char, the Infestors had continuously used this ability against the Protoss Sentries and Colossi, corrupting their design and turning them against the Tal'darim. By incorporating this feature into the Viper and enhancing it with Zerg and Tal'darim energies from the warped Khaydarin Crystals, it had resulted in an abduction ability for the Viper.

Utilizing a fiendish tentacle that had an even longer range than that of the Infestor, the Viper had the ability to latch the tentacle onto units and pull it towards it. As a testament to its strength, the Dark Archon had experimented this on the massive Protoss Colossi walkers, and the Viper proved suited to snare even these massive machines. Ulrezaj quickly saw the potential in this ability as many of the Tal'darim had testified that when they had fought against James Raynor, many weapons within his arsenal only possessed ranged attacks, and would be ineffective if the Tal'darim warriors had gotten within close range.

Both the Swarm Host and the Viper had already been incorporated into the Zerg genetic codes, allowing the Zerg larvae to mutate into these formidable creatures. The next step was to commence field trials with the warped Khaydarin Crystals on the mass legions of Zerg at Kerrigan's hive cluster and converting their loyalty to Ulrezaj instead.

It would certainly not be an easy task. Despite the successes of creating more powerful Zerg breeds, the amount of Khaydarin Crystal shards that the Tal'darim were able to assemble into full Khaydarin Crystals had proven to be less than expected. Only 3 such crystals were formed, a large primary one and two secondary ones. It was thus unknown how effective they would be at taking control of the vast numbers of Zerg here on Char.

Nevertheless, Ulrezaj refused to give up hope. He knew that his master's plan relied heavily on the control over the Zerg swarm, and as long as Kerrigan remained alive, those plans could remain in jeopardy. It was thus vital to regain control of the Zerg in any way possible, and that was exactly what he intended to do on Char. If the Zerg here could be converted to obey him, the rest of the creatures on this volcanic ash world could also be forced to obey his will, and that of the Fallen One's.

Without another thought the Dark Archon telepathically ordered the Tal'darim to bring the warped Khaydarin Crystals out of the base and into the open ash fields of Char. It was time to gain control of the Zerg once more, and this time, he would not be stopped by anyone.


	77. Chapter 77

**Author's Note: It's time for the next chapter. Here, I want to bring some elements of hope to Kerrigan's situation, and to show that the Protoss had learned something after everything that's happened. Many felt the Protoss could never see things in another view, but being stubborn and being stupid are two different things. If a person is stubborn, it doesn't mean he or she is stupid, and that's what I'm going to show in this chapter for the Protoss.**

**For those of you who had read "The Dark Templar Saga Part 3: Twilight", the first part of the chapter you should be able to connect the dots at my logic.**

**As always, please read and review and I'll see you next time.**

* * *

Chapter 77

**Eldritch Lake, Aiur**

Protoss Phoenix interceptors opened up with their ion cannons as Urun channeled his psionic energies into his ship's graviton beams, lifting a Zerg Infestor off the ground and suspending the creature in mid-air. With no way to defend itself, the Infestor was quickly reduced to a pile of blood and guts by the golden Phoenixes.

"That was the last vile Infestor abomination," the Auriga leader announced. "Push forward, my brethren. The Daelaam Protoss elsewhere on the planet are making significant progress in cleaning the Zerg presence from Aiur. We must do the same here."

Below him, fighting remained as fierce as ever as the numbers of Protoss Zealots, Dark Templars, Immortals and Stalkers engaged in combat against the Zerg. Despite the casualties taken, the Protoss warriors had steadily advanced forward. By now, the remaining Zerg have been pushed back to the water's edge at Eldritch Lake. However despite their hopeless situation, they continued to resist with ferocity.

Fortunately, with the numbers no longer on their side, the Protoss could now handle the Zerg with swift effectiveness. The Corsairs unleashed their disruption webs, trapping the massive Ultralisks within and preventing them from engaging the Zealots. Once rendered immobile, Immortals hammered the creatures away with their phase disruptors until the massive beasts finally collapsed onto the ground. Dark Templar warriors moved stealthily on the ground, catching Zerglings by surprise. With a single swipe of their formidable warp blades, they were able to slice them apart.

The few Overlords still in the air desperately tried to evacuate some of the Zerg, but this was to no avail as Urun and his Phoenixes unleashed their attacks upon them, forcing many of them to retreat.

"Bring in the Colossi!" Urun ordered.

The massive golden walkers marched forward, their thermal lances blazing. Hydralisks stood little chance against the searing heat, and many were quickly roasted. Large numbers of Pygalisks charged forward to get within closer range, but Stalkers quickly blinked away from their positions to block their paths, before opening up with their particle disruptors. With the exception of a few, the smaller creatures stood no chance. Most were killed before they could get within striking distance of the Stalkers, while the rest were slaughtered by the Zealots flanking them.

Warp Prisms transformed into their phase modes as they moved into range, as Sentries were warped onto the battlefield to join in with the Protoss warriors. They were greeted by a mass of acid spits from the Roaches, while Zerg Queens flanked them to provide protection against the Zealots. Once again, the Immortals and Stalkers opened fire, but this had a less than optimal effect on the Roaches as the Queens used their transfusion ability to rapidly heal them at a cost of some amount of energy to themselves.

Nevertheless, this only provided easy targets for Urun and his Phoenixes. Extremely slow while off the creep, the Queens were easy prey for their graviton beams, and many of them were imprisoned and suspended in mid-air this way. As many of them were slaughtered in suspension, Urun was confident that the loss of these Queens would break the resilience of the remaining Zerg that continued to fight at Eldritch Lake.

Despite the nature of the Zerg, the Auriga leader could see from in Phoenix interceptor that even they realized that there was little more than they could accomplish here. This was confirmed by the ground tremors as a Nydus Worm popped up from under the earth, and its maw opened up as the Zerg creatures began to retreat towards it in order to escape.

"Stop that Nydus Worm!" Urun commanded. "The Zerg cannot be allowed to escape!"

Immediately, the Corsairs flanking him complied, unleashing their disruption webs and temporarily trapping the Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Roaches in their place, along with the Nydus Worm itself. The nearby Protoss Scouts opened up with their photon blasters, and together with the thermal lances of the Colossi, the biological transport system was quickly reduced to ashes. This cut off the only main escape route for the Zerg, as the Overlords were unable to move into position for transport due to the Protoss air superiority and the total lack of Mutalisks in the air for support.

Confident that the Zerg would be wiped out, Urun moved his Phoenix interceptor away from the frontlines and towards Eldritch Lake. Despite the devastation all over Aiur due to the Zerg invasion, there were places on the planet that did not suffer as much as the Auriga leader had expected, and Eldritch Lake was one such place. This was perhaps understandable, given the Zerg's inability to adapt to the water, which was why the 4 massive oceans on the planet did not suffer too greatly, and the same was true for many of Aiur's 2000 lakes.

As in the case with the River of Light, the scars of Zerg infestation that Eldritch Lake carried were less compared to elsewhere on the planet, and this was a great relief to Urun. Eldritch Lake was one of the holy places for the Protoss Templar Caste. During the Aeon of Strife, the place was virtually unknown to the Protoss, and even after the civil war its location remained a secret. However, for those who had come across it, none could deny its beauty.

In time, the location of Eldritch Lake became known to more Protoss even across the distant continents on Aiur. Pilgrimages to sacred places across Aiur were very common for the Templar Caste, and Eldritch Lake became a main focal point for such journeys. Rumors quickly circulated that the secret lake high in the mountains contained mystical properties, and this attracted the attention of even more Protoss Templar warriors. Some of them made the journey to seek serenity and tranquility and to mediate at Eldritch Lake, while others sought self-awareness and a greater understanding of the universe. Almost all were fully convinced of the wonders of the lake, and that the water it contained would bring harmony to the Khalai Protoss.

As the years passed, while Eldritch Lake remained a secret location, efforts had been made to determine if the rumors regarding the mystical properties of the water it contained could be validated. Taking samples of water from the sacred lake and exposing individual Protoss to it, it had been confirmed that the water did indeed contain psionic abilities. In the case with seasoned High Templar warriors, it allowed them even greater serenity in mediation and thus gave them a greater measure of control of their Khaydarin Crystal amulets in order for them to focus their psionic energies through the Khala.

Such experimentation was still far from complete by the time of the Zerg invasion on Aiur, and it was for this reason that Urun was relieved that the holy lake had not suffered too greatly from the infestation. Prior to the Queen of Blades, the Second Born had little psionic abilities of their own, and most Protoss knew that the Zerg would make every possible effort in order to further evolve themselves if psionic abilities could be assimilated into the swarm. Had they discovered a way in which to harness the water properties of Eldritch Lake, it might have even been possible for the Zerg to develop an immunity to the water, and that would have made them even more dangerous to confront. It was fortunate that they did not, which had explained why when the hordes of Zerg had fortified the Protoss capital of Antioch, their immediate priority was to prevent the city's water reservoirs from being used against them.

With Eldritch Lake secured and the remaining Zerg pockets to be eradicated, Urun moved his Phoenix interceptor away from the frontlines and opened a communications channel to Hierarch Artanis and the Furinax Protoss Vartanil.

"Such a possibility that you speak of would inevitably threaten the Firstborn," he warned. "I had made my points clear to the Hierarchy that it must be determined if the former Queen of Blades has truly lost control over the Zerg swarm or not. If she has not, then I must concur with Nahaan in that she would use them once more to eradicate us."

"We may not have a choice in the matter," Artanis replied. "The Protoss Hierarchy has seen the apocalyptic vision of the future from the Overmind. While the details of it still remain unclear to us, the one thing that must be certain is that however Kerrigan is meant to save all that is from the flames, it will inevitably involve the Zerg. Do not forget, according to Zeratul, Tassadar had made it clear that Kerrigan is also meant to free the Zerg from slavery and corruption. Because of this, it would seem that having her to associate herself with the Zerg swarm once more is unavoidable."

"And after everything she had done to our people and the Nerazim with the Zerg, you believe that she would use them any differently?"

"Great Urun, you must understand the guilt and remorse she now carries," Vartanil pointed out. "No one here is denying the atrocities she had committed during her time with the Zerg, nor is anyone saying that such acts must have been done against her will. However the fact remains that becoming the Queen of Blades was not of Kerrigan's free will."

"You only have James Raynor's testimony," the Auriga leader countered. "I am in agreement with Nahaan in that his feelings for Kerrigan could be blinding him to see her as what she really is."

"I have more than what he said as proof," the young Protoss explained. "When I was at the Alys'aril Nexus on Ehlna, I had briefly touched the mind of the Protoss Preserver Zamara. From there, I had sensed that Kerrigan had been taken by the Zerg and infested against her will on Char. She may have been content with the way she was after the infestation, but this could only have been possible if the Zerg had corrupted her mind into thinking that way."

"This means that Kerrigan did not willingly volunteer to become the Queen of Blades," Artanis added. "The Zerg did not give her a choice in the matter upon infestation. Everything we had seen her do in the past years could have been the result of Zerg corruption in her mind, and not her true intents. Because of this, it would be illogical to argue that her nature is nothing more than the complete and utter destruction of all creation."

"But even after what the Xel'Naga relic had done, we have confirmation that there is still Zerg blood within her," Urun protested. "Even if what you say is true, there is no evidence to assure us that the Zerg influence is really gone."

"She could not have come out of all these years of infestation and still remain the same person as she once was," the Hierarch agreed. "Even so, the remorse that she now feels proves that she is no longer like the Queen of Blades anymore."

"That does not mean that she would not revert back to that vile creature if she associates herself with the Zerg. No one truly understands what they had done to her in the past years, and her ruthlessness and savagery knew no bounds back then."

"Only James Raynor may be able to keep that in check," Artanis mused. "He is the only person who had been able to influence Kerrigan while she was the Queen of Blades. Vartanil and I agree that perhaps it was due to him that Kerrigan was able to restrain herself to a slight degree. Do not forget, from what Zeratul had uncovered in her mind, such feelings were mutual. Clearly Kerrigan had deep feelings for James Raynor, and despite the Zerg infestation, those feelings did not disappear. It may have been due to those feelings that as the Queen of Blades, she was never able to bring herself to kill him, despite having had the opportunities to do so."

Urun did not look convinced. "You honestly believe Kerrigan's feelings for him could have rendered her to feel remorse even when she was the Queen of Blades?"

"All I know is that no one has had greater influence on her than James Raynor. If he was able to cause her restraint while she was the Queen of Blades, then I am certain that he would a similar effect on her now. This is why I must ask of you to disregard Nahaan and his Ara Protoss. His sheer and utter hatred has completely blinded him to the greater picture at hand, and his disregard for the Xel'Naga prophecy is endangering the Firstborn."

The Auriga leader gave a nod of acknowledgement. "You are the only one in the Hierarchy who had fought alongside James Raynor during the Brood War, Hierarch. It is clear that you understand him better than we do. I will trust in your judgment to lead the Daelaam Protoss through these difficult times."

It was all Artanis needed. With Urun on his side, Nahaan was now completely alone in his arguments. He would be overruled in future meetings, and to the Protoss Hierarch, that was enough.

* * *

**Bel'Shir**

Dominion marines saluted as General Madison arrived with his troops to the crash site. He could already see the Dominion engineers pulling the Protoss Scout from the water. Other Dominion engineers were examining the burnt out wreckage of the Protoss Observer, attempting to determine its functionality and if any transmissions had been sent.

"It's good to see you here, sir," one of the marines greeted.

"At least the shooting had some legitimate reason behind it," Madison grumbled. "It's good to know that not all you soldiers get trigger-happy when you get bored. Now then, what have you to report here?"

"Well the Protoss pilot had died in the crash," one of the engineers explained. "Pulling the Scout out of the water wasn't too hard a task, though the ship itself won't be in any flying condition. Even if it was, it's not like any of our pilots would know how to fly it anyways."

"What about any transmissions?" the general asked.

The engineer shook his head. "From what we've managed to examine, the pilot didn't get a chance to warn his fellow Protoss about us. This means they have no idea we're still on Bel'Shir."

Madison sighed in relief. They had gotten lucky, at least for the time being. However, it would only be temporary. All of the Dominion aerospace military vehicles had a tracking system built into them. That way, in case they were stolen or hijacked, they could be located by Dominion scanners and their identifiers. The Dominion general had no doubt that the Tal'darim Protoss would have something similar on their ships.

To that end, he was in a no-win scenario. If the tracker was still intact, the Protoss would be confused as to why the Scout ship wasn't moving from its position because none of the Dominion pilots could fly it. If the tracker was destroyed, the Protoss would immediately send ships to investigate as to what happened to their Scout ship.

The same would be true for the Protoss Observer and its tracking beacon. To make matters worse, both of them were airborne units. This meant that in the area where there would be rough terrain, it would not be a problem for them and they would both be able to reach one area to another relatively quickly. To see them on the sensors as frozen in position would certainly be odd to the Protoss, and that's assuming the tracking beacons had even survived.

There was obviously no chance of covering up their tracks. To Madison, to even delay the Tal'darim from knowing that the Dominion troops were here seemed impossible. At best, he could only delay them from locating their base, but that too wouldn't last very long.

Similarly, to get the terrazine mining process to speed up wouldn't be possible simply due to the fact of the dangers the Tal'darim would now pose. Madison could only hope that the SCV pilots could collect as many canisters as possible and hopefully meet the bare minimum requirements that Mengsk had ordered of him. If they could not, then he would have to hope that whatever the emperor had planned, he would be able to make do with less than what was necessary.

It was for this reason that he had one of his terrazine mining engineers present at the crash site as well. "What's the status of the terrazine collecting now?" Madison asked.

"We've just collected the 332nd canister," the engineer answered. "It's still not to the point of the 400 mark as we've been ordered, but we're getting very close."

"Can the SCVs go any faster?"

"Not likely, sir. The ghost operatives have almost had it with all the constant need to open up the sealed altars again and again. Believe me sir, every single one of them is going to need a very long period of rest and recuperation when this is all over."

"I'll be sure to tell the emperor that myself," Madison assured. "But for the time being, we have to get the job done. And we don't have much time left."

He then turned to one of his officers. "Return back to the Command Center immediately. Have the people there prepare it for immediate takeoff. Once the last canister is loaded in, I want to get off Bel'Shir as soon as possible."

"What about our troops still out in the field to provide protection against any Protoss that might try to defend their holy altars?" Another officer asked.

"That's going to have to depend on when the Tal'darim respond," Madison said, in thought. "If we get lucky enough, the SCVs will have collected the last canister necessary and they won't even have to engage in battle. If that's the case, they can all safety return to the Dropships."

"And if we're not lucky?"

The general thought about this for a moment, before replying, "The moment any Protoss is spotted approaching the terrazine altars and spots the SCVs there, the bullets are going to start flying. I'm not going to let that happen. If any Protoss get within visual range, I don't care how close the SCVs are to finishing the collecting of another terrazine canister. They are to retreat from the area immediately, along with all of the Dominion troops assigned to protect them. Pass the word onto the troops there. They are to avoid confrontation with the Protoss at all costs."

"Sir, that would be directly defying the emperor's orders," the officer pointed out.

"I already defied him when I gave the order to evacuate Bel'Shir when the Protoss nearly decimated our forces," Madison said. "The emperor isn't blind, you know. Even he has to be smart enough to know we can't fight the Protoss without any logistics or anything like that. If he can't see that, then I seriously wonder if there's something wrong with him."

The officer was about the protest again when Madison raised his hand to silence him. "My order still stands, soldier. If the Tal'darim get within range to confront us, all Dominion troops are to get to the Dropships and off of Bel'Shir immediately. The emperor can say what he wants, but this time I have collected enough canisters of terrazine to tell him that I did not get off the jungle moon completely empty handed."

"And if he tells you to go down to the moon to try again, sir?"

"Then I'll tell him that I request major reinforcements to do that, unless he expects us to fight the Protoss with nothing but our fists and prevail," Madison said. "Personally, I don't think Mengsk would be so foolish as to believe that. We may not have as much experience in fighting the Protoss compared to fighting the Zerg, but he would be crazy to expect us to fight bare handed. You have your orders, soldier. Get moving."

* * *

**Dominion Base, Toxic Slums, Dead Man's Rock**

Sarah used her psionic powers to jam the weapons of Dominion marines, as she unleashed a psionic storm onto them. Most had little chance to get away, and were burned to death by it. Wasting no time, she opened fire with her C-20 Canister Rifle, killing the surviving marines nearby.

Beside her, some of the Raiders' Thors pounded the remaining Siege Tanks with their 250mm cannons. Despite the intense artillery barrages from the Dominion tanks, the massive walkers proved to be too heavily armored to be crushed so easily, and advanced forward until they were within range. Only a few of the Siege Tanks were able to survive such a devastating barrage from the Thors, and were forced to pull back even further.

Nearby, the new Dominion transforming Hellions, or Battle Hellions as they liked to be called, continued to offer heavy resistance against the advancing mercenaries, and Kerrigan could see hundreds of charred corpses on the ground, a testament to the power of the Hellions' flamethrowers.

However, with the middle defense line overwhelmed and inner defense ring pierced in several places, Raiders Diamondbacks were now pouring through the breaches. Sarah quickly discovered that although the arm shields of the Battle Hellion allowed them to withstand much more punishment compared to the standard Hellion, they could still do little against eviscerator rail guns of the Diamondback hover tanks. Indeed, she had seen these machines herself during the invasion of Char, when the Raiders had used them en masse and squished hundreds of her Zerg minions and reaching the crash site of the BattleCruiser Helios and rescuing General Warfield.

While she had seen the Dominion use Diamondbacks as well, they were of little use to hold the lines because they had no defenses against aerial opponents, and the Raiders' Banshees took care of that problem.

By now, most of the ground troops were safe from Dominion air attacks, though despite their diminishing numbers, the remaining Dominion Vikings, Grizzlies, Wraiths, Banshees, and BattleCruisers continued to resist. Kerrigan had to admit that some of the Dominion pilots fought exceptionally well, and had there been more of such pilots, would have fought the combined Raider and mercenary aerospace vehicles to a standstill.

Turning back to the battle at hand, the War Pigs flanking her opened up with their gauss rifles once more, and Dominion Reapers were quickly cut down on the spot. Others managed to get a few shots in with their P-38 pistols, but the War Pigs' armor prevented any significant damage. Sarah unleashed a psychic attack, and the remaining Reapers fell screaming to the ground, before falling silent as their minds were fried.

Seeing some Dominion marines trying to escape to a Vulture nearby, she telekinetically lifted the hover bike into the air, before slamming it onto the ground and crushing the marines underneath it.

One of the War Pigs flanking her was suddenly blown backwards, as Sarah turned her head to see a group of Marauders firing their punisher grenades at them. Putting on her cloak, she quickly sprinted away from her escorts and bolted towards the Marauders. As there were no Ravens nearby to spot her, none of the Marauders were able to fire off another shot. Using nothing but her combat knife, she pierced right through their armor and slit their throats.

In other areas of the Dominion base, Vikings unleashed a hail of lead with their gatling guns, and bullet casings clattered to the ground in their thousands. Dominion Firebats exploded in balls of flame, their volatile fuel tanks pierced by the bullets. Vultures fared better, but their light armor meant that they had to rely on speed for survival. With all the firing going in the base, there was little room to hide.

Dominion auto turrets deployed by the remaining Ravens continued to take their toll on both Raiders and mercenaries alike, as the requests for medics continued to pour in by wounded marines, Reapers, and Marauders. Sarah had initially tried to protect them too, but they insisted that her role was to enter the waste facility and deal with the nuclear warheads.

Meanwhile, surviving Dominion Vikings and Goliaths had bottled themselves up in isolated pockets. With so few Siege Tanks left, they had to operate singly, and the Vikings and Goliaths flanked them as escorts. One such ground was heading straight for Sarah's position.

"Stay here," she told the War Pigs. "I'll handle this."

Sprinting forward, she channeling her psionic speed so that she would be able to dash forward faster. The Goliaths opened up with their autocannons, but Sarah moved in a zigzag pattern much more quickly than they had anticipated. Unleashed a psionic bolt, Sarah pushed one of the Goliaths back so hard that it toppled over.

Wasting no time, she used her telekinesis and ripped the toppled Goliath's hellfire missiles right out of its firing port. The other Goliath pilots watched in shock as she hurled them at the Vikings, and most of the mechanical hybrids were quickly engulfed in flames. Kerrigan unleashed another psionic storm, and the remaining Goliaths too quickly toppled over.

Now left with only the Siege Tank, Sarah focused her psionic energies and telekinetically lifted it up into the air over the screams of the Dominion crew inside. Seeing group of Battle Hellions still holding their own ground, she hurled the tank towards them and crushed the mechanical hybrids underneath.

"Kerrigan, come in," Franklin's voice came over her radio. "The last of the Dominion Siege Tanks around the waste facility are retreating. I think we've got the entrance secured."

"On my way," she said, before turning to the War Pigs. "We're almost done here. Once I've taken care of the warheads, the Dominion threat to Dead Man's Rock will be effectively neutralized."

By the time the red haired ghost reached Franklin, she could see the surviving Dominion marines holding their hands in the air, their weapons discarded. Some of them were on the ground and being kicked around by the mercenaries, and Kerrigan made no attempt to stop them. She could sense in their minds that they had brutally beaten women and children upon arriving at Dead Man's Rock just to determine Mira Han's location, so this was considered to be poetic justice.

"Everything's secured here," Franklin said, walking up to her. "We should be able to just stroll into the facility and get the nukes."

Sarah shook her head. "No, I have to do this myself, even if all the Dominion troops are gone."

"What for?"

"We don't know what else they've been doing ever since they moved the warheads into the facility," she told him. "Don't forget, the building is extremely old and decommissioned. Besides, the Dominion would want to trap me in there."

Franklin looked confused. "How would you know that?"

Sarah smiled. "Did you forget I'm a telepath? I can read minds, you know." She then pointed to one of the captured Dominion engineers. "I know the Dominion troops placed explosive charges in the building. That way, they think once I go in there, they'll detonate the charges, get the whole facility to cave in on itself, and crush me inside."

"That's not possible anymore," one of the mercenaries said, holding up a detonator. "We've captured the detonator intact and have already remote disarmed the explosives. They're not going to be doing anything."

"Maybe not, but since no one has done any maintenance in the processing facility for so long, I wouldn't be surprised if it's falling apart anyway," Sarah replied. "Besides, right now we don't know the exact location of the nukes, so if anyone fires a stray shot or anything it might get set off."

Franklin nodded, understanding her point. "All right then, we'll let you go in there alone. Just, come back safe, all right?"

She gave him a curt nod. "Clear the rest of the Dominion base. Most of the troops are now just isolated pockets, so it shouldn't be much of a problem anymore. As long as the waste facility entrance remains secure, I should have the job done in no time."

Without another word she turned around and headed into the waste processing facility.

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Jim followed the Dominion officer to a dilapidated building in the ruins of Tarsonis City. By now, night had fallen again, and reports from the Vikings and Banshees have confirmed that the Zerg have halted their attack for the time being. It would be another 10 hours before sunrise, and this meant both his and Kim's troops would have time to rest before the next Zerg attack wave arrived.

Engineers on both sides have been working around the clock in order to get the rail system leading to Giddings Station and Tarsonis Starport operational again. In the last few hours before sunset, the Zerg Mutalisk attacks had intensified greatly, and despite the efforts from the ground troops, sections of the rail lines were destroyed, which in turn meant that their escape route was cut off for the time being.

The severed sections of the railway could be reconnected relatively quickly, but the power restoration was another matter. All over the city, there have been reports from the flyboys that the Zerg have struck at critical power junctions in order to shut down the rail network. However, as in the case with the ground Zerg, the airborne Zerg also withdrew as night fell. This meant that every minute at night counted, and Kim had given specific orders that no engineer was to rest throughout the night in getting the rail system back into shape for them to leave Tarsonis City.

For the time being, Jim decided to look into the matter of the Dominion excavation for military secrets and technologies. Due to the constant Zerg attacks by day, there wasn't much else to focus. Similarly as he did not possess engineering expertise, it wasn't like he could help out with the excavation process or anything.

However, Jim knew that whatever secrets the Dominion had unearthed, he had to be prepared for it. While he and Kim's troops were not shooting each other for the time being, there was no telling how long that could last. Despite his success in weakening the Dominion with the Korhal broadcasts, the fact remained that their armada remained a force to be reckoned with. If what had been discovered here could benefit them even more, he had to know of it right away.

Upon entering the building, he saw that Mal, Nova, and Kim were already there, along with a few of her officers as well as a few of his own. Kate Lockwell and the UNN journalists were also present, most of them eager to see what had been uncovered.

"Glad you made it, Jim," Nova said, before eyeing Kim slightly. "The colonel there had been trying to keep you from knowing about the excavation and all that. Trying to convince her otherwise wasn't exactly easy."

"I don't consider putting a gun in my face as persuasion," Kim growled angrily. "The mission here was to excavate Confederate military secrets and technologies. No one said you are to have a share in all this."

"I suggest you remember that the soldiers on both sides had to work together since I arrived at the transit station," Raynor shot back. "You could have given the order to shoot me and my boys on sight right then and there, but you chose not to because you wanted to survive and was willing to work with my men for that. By now, even you have to realize that I'm not some incompetent drunk who has no clue of what he's really doing. If I was, the Dominion would have caught up with me years ago."

"He's got a point there," Mal said, turning to Kim. "Raynor isn't saying your troops are useless or anything, but the fact is had you two not worked together to deal with the Zerg, none of us would even be alive right now. It was due to the _combined _efforts of both sides that have allowed us to reach this point."

"Don't forget that you can't keep anything from me," Nova added. "I'm the only telepath in this room here. While I didn't go reading your mind to know just _what _you had uncovered, I know that even you're not quite sure of its purpose and wanted someone to shed more light on the picture."

"That doesn't mean I wanted it to be Raynor," the colonel seethed.

"Colonel Kim, I remind you that some of my engineers had helped you in the excavation process," Jim replied calmly. "Whatever you uncovered here, it's not for you only. If nothing else, you're going to allow me to take a look at what you excavated. Now, we can argue this all night, or you can bring it in and let me look. Nova made it clear that no one else here is sure just what the discovery is anyway."

Kim sighed, but relented. She picked up her radio and spoke in an authoritative voice, "Bring it in, gentlemen."

Jim and the others turned their heads to see a Dominion Ore Loader truck drive into the building, moving carefully to avoid the rubble. When it stopped, Dominion engineers disembarked. One of them carried an unmarked box, while the others helped one another out in pulling a wrecked satellite from the truck.

The engineer carrying the unmarked box set it down on the makeshift table that Kim and the others were using. "These were all the disks that we were able to recover, colonel," he reported. "The rest were crushed or could not be salvaged."

"What can you tell me about what's on the disks?" Kim asked.

"The Confederacy had them all encrypted, and they did a great job at that too," the engineer answered. "All we've managed to do so far is scratch the surface. It would appear to be something called the Psi Disruptor. Beyond that, the only thing we've managed to uncover so far is that it has something to do with the Zerg."

Jim's eyes widened at the revelation. "Do you have any idea what you just discovered here?"

"I take it you've heard of this thing before, Mr. Raynor?" Kate asked, finally speaking up.

"Of course I have," Raynor folded his arms. "Though you don't exactly sound surprised yourself. So I should be asking you what do _you_ know of this, Ms. Lockwell."

The UNN anchorwoman shrugged. "Just bits and pieces, nothing more. As you know, the United Earth Directorate had invaded the Koprulu Sector four years ago. One of the planets they had struck into was the ice world called Braxis. It once belonged to the Confederacy. When it fell, the Dominion took control of it and it remained a Dominion colony until the UED arrived."

"That place was a horrible world to settle on," one of the officers said, shaking his head. "Over 60 percent of that planet is nothing but ice, in some cases well over two miles in thickness. Half the planet's surface is comprised of jagged mountain ranges and valleys. Along with the harsh wind conditions, nature is enough of an enemy to deal with as it is."

"But there's still people living there," Jim pointed out.

"I doubt it'd be more than exporting minerals and vespene for the 24,000 people there," the officer answered. "Braxis once had a reasonably well built capital city of Boralis, but during the Brood War it was destroyed by the UED."

Lockwell spoke up again. "Recently, the Dominion had returned to that frozen world and had its defenses rebuilt. It was all covered on UNN as a valiant undertaking."

Jim snorted. "With nothing but the element of nature to fight against? I don't call that valiant at all."

"Nature is a powerful weapon in its own right, Raynor," Kim scoffed. "You should know that."

The rebel commander waved his hand, before turning back to Kate. "Get back to what you were talking about Ms. Lockwell. How does this relate to what you know about the Psi Disruptor?"

"I was part of the UNN coverage news crew that went to Braxis when the Dominion rebuilt the defenses there," she answered. "Upon one of the places I had visited, Dominion engineers were trying to salvage some massive military structure, though the end result was unsuccessful. I had interviewed a few officers on what it was, they said it's called a Psi Disruptor, but wouldn't say anything more. I didn't even know it had something to do with the Zerg until just a few minutes ago. Anyways, the Dominion troops there confirmed that the Zerg had destroyed it, though I don't know for what reason."

"The Zerg destroyed it because it was a threat to them," Jim said. "Tell me Ms. Lockwell, what do you know about the Psi Emitters?"

"Only what you revealed in the broadcasts on Korhal," she said. "I don't know the details, but apparently it had something to do with using the Zerg."

"Before the days of the Dominion, the Confederacy had been doing a lot of research on the Zerg in their labs," the commander explained. "As I'm sure you know, the Confederacy had quite a long list of enemies, and after the way they turned Korhal to glass, they weren't exactly considered popular in the sector."

"I don't understand how this has to do with the Psi Emitter," Lockwell said, confused.

"From the research they had done, the Confederacy had discovered that the Zerg were attracted to the psychic emanations of ghosts. When this had been confirmed, the Confederates decided to use this to their advantage," Jim said, gritting his teeth. "They developed a small, portable device known as the Transplanar Psionic Waveform Emitter, which has the capability to broadcast the neural imprints of ghosts. Their range was also extremely long, a single one was able to reach out as far as 25 light years, while multiple ones in the same area would be able to amplify the effect significantly."

Kate was horrified. "Why the hell would the Confederates want to bring the Zerg in?"

"As I said, the Confederacy had quite a long list of enemies, and wanted a way to deal with them relatively quickly. Given the savage nature of the Zerg, few would ever suspect that they were lured in. That way, once the Confederates move in and destroy the creatures, the public would praise them as heroes."

"But the Confederates outdid themselves," Mal said, slowly catching on. "Clearly the Psi Emitter was capable of bringing in more Zerg than they thought."

"He's right," Jim said, giving the wrangler a nod of acknowledgement, before turning to Kate once more. "The Confederacy thought that a single Psi Emitter would bring in only hundreds of Zerg, which would be easily manageable. Instead, the result was in the millions, which was far beyond the ability of the Confederacy to handle it. Don't forget, at that point I was part of the Sons of Korhal that your emperor led, and Mengsk had discovered the blueprints to these Psi Emitters. When he found out about how much Zerg these things were capable of netting in, he saw that as the perfect opportunity to crush the Confederacy here on Tarsonis."

"Jim told me that thanks to Mengsk and the emitters he placed, billions of Zerg were lured here and overran the whole planet," Nova said. "You heard what he broadcasted on Korhal, but now you know the details of how it all went down."

Kate nodded silently. This was a lot for her to take in. That the Zerg were being used in the name of greed and personal glory did not sit well with her. Now she was beginning to think that the emperor was more of a monster than even the Zerg.

"How does this relate to the Psi Disruptor then?" she asked softly. "What does it have to do with all this?"

"The Zerg use telepathy to communicate with each other," Jim answered. "The Psi Disruptor was the result that proved not everyone in the Confederacy was arrogant and cocky. The disruptor broadcasted a signal like the Psi Emitter, but over even greater distances. The intent here was to interfere with the Zerg psionic link and render them less effective on the battlefield."

"So the Confederates _did _factor in the possibility that the Psi Emitters could be used against them," Mal mused.

"Correct, and from what I know, the Dominion knew about the rumors of it, but couldn't confirm or deny it. It was for this reason that after Tarsonis fell to the Zerg, Dominion troops returned here to search for it. The result was unsuccessful, and it was assumed that the disruptor had been destroyed along with virtually everything else on the planet."

"But that's not what happened," Kate pointed out. "The wreck of the disruptor on Braxis proved otherwise."

"Four years ago, the UED also came to Tarsonis," Jim explained. "They discovered that the Psi Disruptor had survived intact despite the devastation the Zerg caused on this world. The UED then decided to use this to their advantage and took it to Braxis. By using the disruptor, the signal hampered the Zerg communications on the volcanic world of Char, which allowed the UED fleet to penetrate to the planet's surface. It was the Psi Disruptor that had allowed the UED to take control of Char, and thus most of the Zerg as well."

"That would explain why the Zerg destroyed it," Lockwell said, more to herself than to Raynor. "From what you've told me so far, it seems like everyone had been trying to use the Zerg for their own ends, though each time it seemed to have backfired on them."

"You have no idea," Jim said, thinking about the Xel'Naga prophecy. However, he decided this was not something for the UNN anchorwoman to know just yet.

"It's for this reason that you're not going to have the disks all to yourself," Nova said to Kim. "From what everyone knew until just now, that Psi Disruptor was the only one of its kind. With it destroyed on Braxis and no one knew how to build another one, it was presumed to be lost forever. If those disks contain the blueprints on how to build another one, you can bet we're not going to let you walk away with it."

The colonel snorted. "And I'm supposed to believe you know how to better use it?" She turned to Raynor. "If you think we don't know a damn thing about you and your Raiders in terms of weapons technology, you're sadly mistaken. Thanks to Prince Valerian, we too had seen what you had done on Char. We know that you have access to Psi Disruptors of your own."

"Which is used in a completely different way compared to the Confederates!" Jim shot back.

"What way are you using it?" Mal asked.

"My top scientist Stetmann had collected Zerg tissue samples for his projects," the commander answered. "In one such case he dosed it with sigma radiation just as the UED had done four years in the past. It doesn't kill the Zerg, but it hinders their movement speed. From that, he developed his own version of the Psi Disruptor, and his actions helped us during the Char invasion in dealing with the Zerg attacks."

Kim, however, was not convinced. "And you think that's going to get me to agree for _you_ to walk away with these disks? I think not, Raynor. The Dominion military may have its moments of arrogance, but there are still those of us who don't underestimate you. I don't exactly know how you plan to utilize it, but having those disks in your hands will threaten the Dominion even more, and I for one will not let that happen."

Jim shook his head. This was clearly getting nowhere. "You know, we can cross that bridge later. Right now your argument isn't going to mean a thing if none of us get out of the city alive."

"Plus I'm curious as to what could possibly on that wrecked satellite," Nova said, turning her head over to that.

"All my boys have discovered so far is that the Confederate satellite had intercepted some transmissions before it was knocked out of the sky," Kim said. "The satellite itself will never get into orbit again, but it's still reasonably intact and the Dominion engineers think the transmissions could still be recovered. Unfortunately they're all coded so we don't know what's on them."

"Is there a way to find out?" Kate asked.

Kim narrowed her eyes at the UNN anchorwoman. "These could be military secrets, Ms. Lockwell. Such would be classified and not for you to know. It's too far above your paygrade."

"Enough with your damn classified information clause," Jim said angrily. "You should know by now that this isn't exactly an ordinary situation here, Kim. We have a right to know what's on that satellite as much as you do. You can argue that your mission is a Dominion excavation mission, but we're all here now. This isn't a Dominion exclusive mission anymore."

Kim clenched her fist in anger and frustration. This bickering was getting on her nerves. Yet to fight over something like this was pointless, not while the Zerg remain a serious threat to them here. With a heavy sigh, she decided to appease Raynor for the time being.

"Utilize every minute right now," she ordered to her engineers. "Find out what's on that satellite. I doubt whatever transmissions it carries will be of much use to us immediately, but they could be in the long run. Get to it and report back to me the moment the transmissions have been decoded."


	78. Chapter 78

**Author's Note: Only yesterday I had found another interview involving Christie Golden, author of "Flashpoint". She had admitted in the interview that even after all 3 Dark Templar Saga books and "Flashpoint", it still doesn't really explain if Valerian Mengsk is good or evil, though it's leaning somewhat towards the former. It was said that it's likely as this moment, even the developers still don't know what direction to take him, which is why they kept him vague.**

**It's exactly this reason why I didn't include him in my fic except for the opening chapters. However, I always felt it would be good to mention him indirectly from time to time. Personally I don't want Valerian to turn out evil because in "I, Mengsk" he swore he wouldn't turn out like his father. Therefore, if we find out he becomes even worse than Arcturus, then he'll have learned nothing after all these years.**

**And let's be honest, when you have a father that's an evil man and you swear you'll be different than him, and then turn out an even _bigger_ monster than your father, that doesn't really quality as "being different." Being different is supposed mean being _better_, not worse. He even told Raynor in Wings of Liberty he wanted to be a better man than his father, after all.  
**

**This chapter is to show the different styles of ruling between Valerian and Arcturus. Once you reach the second part of the chapter, you'll know what I'm getting at.**

**As always, please read and review and I'll see you next time.**

* * *

Chapter 78

**Velari Province, Aiur**

Mohandar watched from his Void Ray as another of Nahaan's Ara Tribe Protoss messengers was sent away. After the Zerg resistance around the corpse of the Overmind had been broken, there had been an increase in activity by the Ara Protoss.

The Dark Templar wasn't fooled by what was happening, of course. Clearly Nahaan had been angered during the Hierarchy meeting that he had been overruled, that the former Queen of Blades would simply be monitored to determine where her loyalties now lie, rather than have her executed on the spot. It was obvious that most all of the other Ara Protoss felt the same way. Thus as the Auriga and Akilae Protoss warriors along with his Nerazim brethren dispersed themselves all over Aiur to hunt down the remaining Zerg creatures, the Ara Tribe Protoss had been using this time to gather their influence on others.

Mohandar knew that Nahaan's insistence that his Ara Tribe have a greater say in the Hierarchy was a deception. The Ara leader wanted to regain control of the Protoss ruling body, and his messengers were meant to pave the way for just that, provided that they could influence enough of the Firstborn.

Fortunately, this had proven to be less than successful, despite the fact that some of the points raised certainly had justifications. Hierarch Artanis had made sure that his Akilae warriors would disregard Nahaan's influence due to the Ara leader's dismissal of Tassadar's actions when Zeratul had encountered him on Aiur. Zekrath had done the same for the Shelak due to the Ara Tribe's disregard for the Xel'Naga prophecy. Tabrenus and the Furinax Tribe did similarly. Only Urun's Auriga Tribe was willing to listen, but they too refused to go to the extremes in believing that Kerrigan was to be executed without any understanding of the Xel'Naga prophecy.

As for himself and the Nerazim tribes, Mohandar still harbored a deep dissatisfaction for Nahaan and his Ara Protoss. Despite the fact that the Protoss Protectorate had unified the Khalai and Nerazim into the Daelaam Protoss, integration had remained a problem. In the case of the Ara Tribe, they were the least welcomed Khalai refugees by the Dark Templar when Aiur had been overrun by the Zerg and the planet had to be abandoned and the Khalai Protoss escaped to Shakuras.

Despite Raszagal's welcoming of the Khalai Protoss to the Nerazim homeworld, Mohandar had been very uncomfortable and suspicious of the Ara Tribe. In the aftermath of the Aeon of Strife, the Ara Protoss became dominant in the Judicator Caste, and it was from there that the Conclave was formed. Even before all of the Khalai Protoss tribes had embraced the Khala, the Dark Templar tribes had seen firsthand of the Ara Tribe's lust for power, control, and dominance. There were those even within the Khalai Protoss that hesitated about embracing the Khala, and while the Judicator Caste continuously told them the Khala would be telepathic union that connected the Protoss in a sea of thought, it was obvious that the Conclave wanted all of the Protoss to be under their rule through the Khala.

When the Dark Templar tribes defied the Conclave and refused to submit, the Conclave saw that the Nerazim disagreed with the Khalai Protoss on fundamental issues. Yet instead of accepting different perspectives, they immediately branded the Dark Templar as traitors to the Firstborn and ordered their extermination. When that had failed, the Judicator Caste ordered all of the Nerazim tribes onto a derelict Xel'Naga ship and expelled them from Aiur.

Thus upon arriving on Shakuras, despite the fact that the Ara Tribe had been little more than a shadow of its former self and its influence on the other Khalai Protoss tribes significantly weakened due to the loss of the Conclave's power base on Aiur, Mohandar had been greatly concerned when it was agreed that the Khalai refugees would be permitted to stay on Shakuras and rebuild until the day comes when Aiur would be reclaimed from the Zerg. Certainly he was far from as benevolent as the Conclave and still saw the Khalai Protoss as his brothers and sisters, but the Ara Tribe had left behind a very bitter impression on the Dark Templar.

Such an impression remained when his fellow Dark Templar brethren had reported to him regarding the Ara Protoss' message in completely disregarding the Xel'Naga prophecy. To Mohandar, this was considered utter ludicrous. To disregard the Xel'Naga would be to go against everything the Nerazim culture and society stood for, and it was the lack of comprehending the Xel'Naga that had caused the Khalai Protoss to greatly underestimate the Zerg during their invasion of Aiur. It was the might of the Xel'Naga with their energies within the ancient temple on Shakuras that had expelled the Zerg presence there, and it was the might of the Xel'Naga that had allowed James Raynor to finally defeat the Queen of Blades.

It was the last point that the Ara Tribe had argued greatly about, and Mohandar had to admit that there had been some justification within their logic. The Xel'Naga prophecy had been discovered from the ancient shrines on the moon of Ulaan, but they had only revealed the existence of the Fallen One and that his actions would break the Xel'Naga cycle, allowing him to consume all light and hope.

On the other hand, Zeratul had made it clear that nothing on the Xel'Naga shrines had said anything regarding Kerrigan. That knowledge had been given to him by Tassadar when he attempted to extract memories from the husk of the Overmind. To that end, Nahaan did have grounds for justification to argue that the prophecy may have little to do with the former Queen of Blades.

Still, Mohandar was upset to learn that Nahaan was disregarding the information provided by Tassadar and declaring that the mighty Protoss hero had gone mad, though he could understand the Ara leader's reasoning.

Prior to his actions in defeating the Overmind, Tassadar had been greatly disliked by the Ara Tribe for his actions in questioning the Conclave's will, associating himself with the Nerazim, and then bringing them back to Aiur. To admit that they were in error was extremely difficult for the Conclave to accept, and this was still true of the Ara Tribe today. It was obvious that Nahaan hoped to prove that the Ara Tribe was still capable of making intelligent decisions and making them swiftly, and that this would allow them a greater influence towards the Daelaam Protoss.

Mohandar shook his head at the thought, and it only proved how little the Ara Tribe had learned since Aiur had been overrun by the Zerg. He then pushed the thought away and turned back to the situation on the ground, where Protoss Zealots and Dark Templar warriors had cleared the last of the Zerg from the Velari Templar School.

Looking at it from afar in his Void Ray, Mohandar immediately thought of the Shakuras Templar Proving Grounds on the Dark Templar homeworld, where warriors of the Templar Caste did battle to achieve their initiation and to become Zealots. The Velari Templar School did similarly on Aiur, but it also featured Protoss mentors that taught Protoss warriors in the way of the Khala.

The school itself was certainly vast, home to numerous temples. According to Khalai refugees, when the Furinax Protoss constructed the school, they had forged an inner temple for teaching Protoss templar warriors, as well as a lower temple hidden within constantly shifting catacombs, where holy Protoss and Xel'Naga relics and artifacts were housed and hidden away from the enemies of the Firstborn.

In the case with the Kassia Crystal that now resided on Shakuras, Dark Templar scholars that examined it concluded it to be a holy Xel'Naga relic, as well as an extremely dangerous weapon if wielded properly. They had confirmed that the Khalai Protoss had believed about the artifact, that it could be used to affect both the Protoss and Zerg in terms of fertility rates. Given the latter's ability to breed so rapidly, this would prove to be an invaluable defense against them.

The Kassia Crystal still resided in the lower catacombs of the Velari Templar School when Aiur was overrun by the Zerg. As the Second Born converged on the school, the High Templar Lekila remained to defend it with her students, but to no avail as they were overwhelmed and were forced to abandon the school. Lekila herself had been injured and her psionic appendages, but her close friend Rihod had arrived in a Mothership and saved her life.

Unfortunately, with her appendages severed, it also cut off Lekila's psionic link to the Khala. As in the case with the Tal'darim survivors encountered on Aiur, this meant that she had been embraced by the Void, and had left her thoroughly confused. Yet the High Templar Rihod managed to convince her to return to Aiur in order to retrieve the sacred Kassia Crystal and prevent it from falling into Zerg hands. Having remained at the Velari Templar School for so long, Lekila was the only one who knew how to navigate the catacombs in order to read the lower temple that housed the ancient artifact.

It was here that once more convinced Mohandar that the Khalai Protoss were in error to embrace only the Khala and give little or no thought to the understanding of the Void. When Lekila reached the Kassia Crystal, she had discovered that she was unable to remove it from its seal. When the Xel'Naga had forged this artifact, they had sealed it with their own energies, and the barrier was immune to the energies of the Khala. It had been left to the female templar warrior to break the seal using the energies of the Void that she now wielded, and this was clear proof to Mohandar that the Xel'Naga may have created the Firstborn to have an understanding of the Void and its methodology.

It was after this that the combined powers of the Void and the Khala had been shown once more. According to the Protoss survivors on Shakuras, Lekila and Rihod merged together to form an Archon being in order to fend off the Zerg and to protect the Kassia Crystal. However while Lekila had been embraced by the Void, Rihod still maintained his psionic link to the Khala. The combination of Void and Khala energies thus had allowed them to merge into a Twilight Archon, one of immense strength and vastly more powerful than that of the standard Archon that Khalai Protoss templars merge into. It was the Twilight Archon that had allowed the Zerg to be beaten off, and the Kassia Crystal was safely transported to Shakuras.

Yet in the aftermath of this knowledge of the Twilight Archon, the Daelaam Protoss remained hesitant on the merging of such a being. As in the case with Archons and Dark Archons, the Twilight Archon was also a finite being and therefore would burn out like a star after a set period of time. But the far greater danger was the combination of the Void and Khala energies.

The Tal'darim survivors had confirmed the dangers of being cut off from the Khala and embraced by the Void, and it was for this reason that the concept of Twilight Archons remained an uncomfortable subject for the Protoss Hierarchy. It was the same way that the Firstborn loathed to sacrifice valuable templar warriors for merging into Archons despite their immense power.

With regards to combining the Khala and the Void, it was something that the Daelaam Protoss were still reluctant to accept, and he was no exception given the dangers of it.

Still, the Firstborn may not have a choice in the matter given what they had learned regarding the Xel'Naga prophecy. It was obvious that the Fallen One was a being unlike anything they had encountered before, and every possible option at the Firstborn's disposal would have to be considered in order to ensure the Protoss' survival.

* * *

**Korhal City, Korhal**

"I wouldn't get that close to the window if I were you, sir," one of the Korhal City officials suggested to Mayor Kirkwood. "It's just a suggestion, but with the way things are going right now, I think the locals are capable of just about anything."

The Korhal City mayor sighed in frustration, as he turned his head back to look out the window, back to the sight of his ruined city. Only 36 hours had passed since he made the suggestion to his officials on how to salvage the situation, and already there were signs that events in the city were beginning to spiral out of control.

By now, hundreds of protestors had already gathered at the front doors of his tall office building, and more were arriving on an hourly basis. The Korhal City police had to set up barricades to ensure that none of the protestors decide to kick the door down to reach him, though the mob outside was becoming more and more angry with each passing hour. So far, there were no signs that they would all charge forward to reach him on the top floor, but that could all change in an instant. If that happened, Kirkwood knew that the police authorities wouldn't be able to stop such a stampede.

Only a small section of the Korhal City police force was stationed outside the building to act as security for him. The rest had their hands full on trying to make the most out of a bad situation with regards to relief aid to the rest of the city and its population. With such slender supplies at the city's disposal, this was proving to be a daunting task.

Despite Kirkwood's orders to double the security at the city's bakeries, this had proven to be far less effective than he had expected. The laser activated security measures did nothing to stop looters, since all they did was contact the local police. Under normal circumstances, this would have been just fine, but with hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of total starvation, the looters were simply too many for the police to handle. Reports have continuously flooded in that almost all of Korhal City's smaller surviving bakeries have been looted, and this still wasn't enough to deal with the hunger problem. The larger bakeries had been more fortunate, but that was only because the civilians believed that the larger shops would have more improved security measures.

Thefts between looters were also increasing at an alarming rate. Due to the presence of so many starving people among the looters, the physically stronger ones were exploiting their weaker counterparts with a near unimaginable shamelessness. In many cases, some of the weaker looters couldn't make it back to their ghetto homes in time, and gangs of thugs ended up stealing the bread and other food supplies they themselves had stolen. Other times looters found themselves having easy access to the food supplies, only to be caught in an ambush as other looters jumped on them to steal the loaves of bread.

This led to more and more people to realize that they were going to need guns to protect themselves, and the gun shops in the city were all placed on high alert in the event of looters coming in and raiding them. Kirkwood knew that the hordes of looters with just clubs were already causing enough chaos in the city. If they armed themselves with handguns, he would lose all control.

While pistols were usually meant for the Dominion military, there were still plenty of types for civilian usage. The P30, P100, P180, P220, and Z50 pistols were found in several gun shops within the city, though the P180 was never popular due to it being prone to jamming. The Pulse Pistol was harder to find due to its popularity on colonist worlds, but some of the wealthy people in Korhal City had acquired them as collectibles. The TX2 and T20, despite their unreliability in exploding in the case of the former and jamming in the case of the latter, were still pistols that could be acquired in Korhal City, as was the case with the T10 pistol, which was once the standard sidearm of the Confederate military.

The highest measures were ordered to ensure the security of the gun shops. Even in the aftermath of the Odin incident with half the city reduced to rubble, Kirkwood continuously believed that the local inhabitants would work together to get through this mess. Now, with far too little relief supplies flowing into the city, it was clear that more and more of the people were starting to tear each other apart and looking out only for their own individual needs.

Even families were no longer being held in unity anymore. Only an hour ago, a report had come in that one family had been among the looters, robbing a bakery together. However, in the middle of the heist, they were ambushed by gangs, and the youngest son was left as the odd person out. Yet rather than make any attempt to save their son, the rest of the family simply retreated away to their ghetto homes without even giving their son so much as another thought and leaving him at the fate of the gang members.

The sheer nature of selfishness was spreading throughout the whole city. By now, more and more people were starting to realize that whatever supplies of aid that they receive won't be enough to save them all, and it was now every man, woman, and child for him or herself. There were still those that were doing everything they could to help others out, but it was becoming more and more rare.

This nature was also being reflected in the hospitals across the city. With medical supplies running dangerously low, there were now even reports that doctors and hospital personnel were lying to their patients of the lack of supplies. Instead, they were hording the med supplies for themselves in the event that they would need it in the future.

To Kirkwood, this was considered to be appalling. He had always believed that human nature was supposed to be kind and caring to others, and events in the city were contradicting all of this. But, as one of his officials had grimly reminded him, every person has a breaking point. If the going became way too rough, the entire nature of human characteristics could easily change.

It was a bitter pill for the mayor to swallow, but he knew that the official was right. Kirkwood had been in constant touch with the Korhal City police and requesting reports to monitor the situation in the city, and he could see from their faces that even some of _them_ were starting to realize the hopelessness of the situation. As far as they were concerned, unless massed quantities of relief aid arrived in Korhal City immediately, their actions would do nothing more than delay the inevitable.

For the Korhal City mayor, it was enough. He had promised his people salvation, and he would do everything in his power to keep his word. Turning back to his desk, he pressed a button on the communicator console and opened up a channel with one of the city's chief suppliers.

To his surprise however, the man's face showed relief instead of the usual grimness. "Sir, you're just in time," he announced. "Everyone in Korhal City had been waiting on a miracle, I think it had finally arrived."

"What are you talking about?" Kirkwood asked, confused.

"Less than 15 minutes ago, a massive Dominion Freighter ship just touched down within starport just outside of the city," came the reply. "Aboard the ship are more than 100,000 tons of food, fuel, and medical supplies. According to the ship's captain, they're all to be transported to Korhal City immediately. As we speak the supplies of cargo are already being loaded onto transport trucks and trains, the first of which will be arriving in less than an hour."

The mayor sighed in relief. Finally, after hours upon hours of chaotic reports coming into his office, there was good news. "I'm glad the emperor saw the appalling situation the city was in and increased the supply flow."

The chief supplier frowned. "The emperor had nothing to do with this, sir. I already spoke with the freighter's personnel. None of them were acting by the emperor's decree."

Now Kirkwood looked confused. "Then who gave the order for this shipment? Not that I don't appreciate it, but if the emperor didn't do it, I don't see how someone could go around his back."

"According to the people I spoke to, they're under orders from his son, Prince Valerian. Apparently the young prince was not exactly pleased with the way his father was treating the people in Korhal City, and was acting way too slowly to help the local population. He decided to take matters into his own hands instead."

Kirkwood nodded in understanding. "Tell the freighter boys that I owe the prince a debt of gratitude. These supplies are just what I need to stabilize the situation in the city and prevent everything from falling into total chaos."

"Sir, if I may, I'm beginning to think the young prince would make a far better ruler than his father," the chief said. "The emperor came to Korhal City with the promises of relief, and barely anything happened. Now according to the ship's captain, Prince Valerian heard the exact details of the appalling state of Korhal City only a couple of hours ago. Look how quickly the relief aid supplies arrived."

"I'm with you on that one," Kirkwood agreed. "It just shows that the Dominion logistics system is capable of working extremely fast when it has to. Now I seriously wonder why the emperor didn't do the same thing like his son did."

"I don't understand this either, sir. James Raynor's actions right here in the city had already did a number on the emperor's reputation. You'd think if he would want to people to stand behind him, he would act in their best interests. Granted, his definition of best interests may be different from ours, but I don't exactly see how letting the whole city starve to death would be helpful to him and his reputation."

"What about his son Prince Valerian?"

The man shrugged. "From what I got out of the ship's personnel, it would seem that the young prince wants to be a better man compared to his father. If so, he's certainly driving that point home with the supplies he's given us today."

"Well if nothing else, he's certainly earned my support," Kirkwood replied. "Unlike the emperor, he actually took action instead of just making speeches and promises, none of which the emperor delivered on."

The chief supplier frowned slightly at that. "It's funny you should bring that up, sir. That's one of the warnings I did get from the ship's captain for these supplies. He warned us that we have to stretch the supplies out for as long as possible because there is no telling when the next Freighter can arrive."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, he may be the Crown Prince of the Terran Dominion, but Prince Valerian's power and authority still has its limits. His father is the emperor and the supreme ruler of the Dominion, and that means he can still overrule his son's decisions."

The mayor frowned deeply. "So you're saying it might be possible that other cargo ships could be on their way to Korhal City right now, but since this is being done behind the emperor's back, if he finds out about this he could countermand those orders and turn the Freighters away."

"It's why I recommend we have to proceed under the assumption that the supplies we have right now may be the last we get for quite a while and plan according to that," the chief said.

Kirkwood nodded in agreement. "When the emperor was here, I had informed him that we needed a minimum of 25,000 tons a day. Do you believe there's a way to bring the minimal requirement even lower?"

"Possibly, but even if I could, the supplies here will only be a temporary reprieve. No matter how you carve it, I'd give it at most a week before they run out."

"Maybe so, but at least now we have some breathing space," the Korhal City mayor said. "For the time being, you just concentrate on getting the supplies into the city. I'll take care of how to distribute them."

"And what will happen when they run out?" the chief asked.

"I've already told the locals that if the situation doesn't improve, I'll ask for aid from the other cities on Korhal. The supplies here will give them hope, and I have no intention of letting that hope disappear the moment the supplies are gone."

Without another word Kirkwood shut off the communicator. He had a great deal of planning to do to get the city and its people in high morale and confidence again, but he would rise up to the challenge.

* * *

**Waste Disposal Facility, Toxic Slums, Dead Man's Rock**

Another Dominion Reaper fell to the ground in his own pool of blood. Sarah watched as the Reapers around him slowly bled to death, some of them more painfully and more agonizingly than they should be.

Instead of prolonging their agony, she put bullets in their heads with her C-20 Canister Rifle to ensure that their deaths came quickly. She knew that by now most of the Dominion infantrymen in the toxic waste processing facility were already dead, as she could pick up on very few thoughts with her telepathy.

Still, the red haired ghost was not going to take any chances. To concentrate solely on the mission of disarming the warheads here wasn't exactly made easy by the state the building was in.

After being abandoned for so long, Kerrigan was surprised that it was still holding itself together without any form of maintenance. Given the pitiful state of just about every building she had come across since arriving on Dead Man's Rock, she had gotten the impression that few buildings could survive more than a month, regardless of how much maintenance was done on it. Clearly far greater efforts had been made when it came to constructing this particular facility.

Of course, such efforts still had their limitations given the resources available to this lawless world. As she traversed deeper underground into the building, she could see more and more cracks on the walls. Other places were leaking radioactive and toxic waste from the ceiling. Water pipes were broken or had completely burst, and almost all of them were leaking contaminated water.

The sheer stench was overpowering, even more so than when she had infiltrated the Dominion base in the Toxic Slums. Sarah was thankful for her mask that covered her whole face so that she didn't have to inhale much the toxic fumes.

The same could be said for the Dominion soldiers that continued to resist her, despite their small numbers. Given the twisting narrow corridors, it wasn't possible to place Goliath walkers in the facility as they would have absolutely no room for maneuver. Some of the corridors were much broader, but most of the ones Sarah had come across had also caved in, and it was obvious that this was something the Dominion had no intention of risking.

The marines were of no match to her. They were trained to fight on the frontlines, and had virtually no experience in dealing with ghost operatives. In most cases she needed little more than her combat knife to sneak up from behind them and slitting their throats. Other times they did block vital corridor junctions, but a simple psychic attack was more than enough to permanently fry their brains and clear the way for her.

Still, they had one factor on their side. Being deep underground, Sarah could receive no signal from her radio and therefore could not call for reinforcements. She would have to handle this alone, but the Confederacy had trained her for such missions. Nova told her that the Dominion Ghost Program did the exact same thing, and this was also one of the reasons that most ghost operatives were loners, with no attachments to anyone.

Not that this detachment was a good thing, as far as Sarah was concerned. Even while she was still training with Nova on Haven, Sarah had seen how attached the blond ghost had become to the Raiders. Nova had told her about how she fought alongside them against the Dominion on Valhalla to steal the massive Odin heavy walker, and then later on Korhal where Jim's actions had greatly weakened Mengsk's position on the throne. She told her about how she fought alongside the Raiders to retrieve the last Xel'Naga artifact fragments, and then finally on Char against the Zerg.

Yet while she was happy for Nova in settling in with the Raiders, by thinking of Jim's actions on Korhal suddenly made her blood boil as the thought of Mengsk came to the front of her mind. It was him that had done all of this to her. She had fought alongside him in the belief that he would bring freedom to the Koprulu Sector. She had dedicated herself to the Sons of Korhal and to overthrow the Confederacy that tormented her for years. Yet in the end, Mengsk had simply abandoned her to the Zerg at New Gettysburg without even blinking.

It was only then that she began to realize that he was not the savior that she believed he would be. He betrayed not only her and Jim, but all of humanity when he turned back on his promise and become the very evil he swore to destroy. Now, however, with her mind cleared of the Zerg infestation, Sarah knew that she would be able to confront him. And this time, she would dedicate herself to see that Mengsk would be brought to justice.

Whether she would be doing this alongside the Raiders was another question, and as far as she saw it, it only yielded very pessimistic answers. Even though she had fought alongside them to clear the Zerg from Agria, and then later from the Overmind's corpse on Aiur, the factor of distrust, misunderstanding, and hatred remained, and she didn't need to read their minds to know that. Even now, although they were all working together to deal with the Dominion here on Dead Man's Rock, it was obvious that the Raiders were not comfortable trusting her.

Granted, as she had picked up on the crew members on the Hyperion as they were on their way to Dead Man's Rock, there were those that were glad that she and Jim were together again, but others were concerned that she was making their commander too delusional. Kerrigan couldn't blame them, given all that had happened when she was the Queen of Blades.

She shook her head and pushed those thoughts aside. That was something that could be dealt with at another time. For now, she still had a mission to complete. Focusing her mind once more to the task at hand, she continued to move forward until she reached a set of large doors. They appeared to be malfunctioning, but that posed no problem to her. Channeling her psionic powers, she telekinetically pushed the doors open, allowing her access into the room.

The Dominion engineers didn't even have a chance to draw their sidearms as Sarah squeezed the trigger on her rifle. Within a few seconds, all of the engineers fell to the ground in a pool of blood, their bodies riddled with bullet holes.

The lights in the room flickered weakly as Sarah finally saw the container with the nuclear warhead marking and she breathed a sigh of relief. Both of the Apocalypse Class nuclear weapons were still here, the Dominion weren't able to get them out of the base in time.

Without another thought she put down rifle and began to lift the container lid. Once she disarmed these nukes, everything would be finished here.

However as she fully opened the container, Sarah's eyes widened in shock and horror.

The container opened to reveal two smaller containers housing the nukes. However only one of them still held its content, the other one was empty. The second nuclear warhead was gone.


	79. Chapter 79

**Author's Note: Blackhole1, in your review of my chapter 71, you had asked me why didn't I repair Korhal City given Raynor's actions in there with the Odin and all that. You said that such an act should have been humiliated to Mengsk because he boasted that Korhal was untouchable, and Raynor disproved that, so it was a blow to his pride and reputation.**

**As the words you said yourself, "Doesn't Mengsk realize that the best way to get people to forget that little incident was to erase all evidence of its existence? By quickly and efficiently coming to his people's aid, he'd effectively be poking holes in Raynor's broadcast by appearing as a far stronger and/or more benevolent ruler than the broadcast suggested. It just strikes me as a little stupid of him not to use something like that to his advantage. I suppose that you could say that it was his arrogance that stopped him from making the right decision, but if he's making mistakes like this, I can only wonder why he's still on the throne."**

**That's because you and I don't see Mengsk in the same view. And in this chapter, you'll get to see my interpretation of Mengsk's mentality. Once you reach the second and fourth parts of the chapter, you'll see exactly what I mean.**

* * *

Chapter 79

**Bel'Shir**

Dominion marines positioned themselves behind the sandbags, their C-14 gauss rifles trained in forward position and searching for any Tal'darim unfortunate enough to get in their crosshairs. Marauders trundled about beside them, their punisher grenade launchers ready to strike at any opponent to attack the defense lines.

Behind them, General Madison sighed. Despite the gallant efforts his soldiers were making and the show of courage they had on their faces, he knew that most of them were very grim about the outcome. Casualties so far have been relatively light, but that wasn't due to any tactical defensive plans or anything like that. Rather, the Protoss attack waves so far have only been probing attacks, instead of attacking them in full force. Clearly despite the devastation that Archon entity had wreaked upon his Dominion troops, the remaining Tal'darim on Bel'Shir were still unsure as to just how many soldiers Madison still had at his disposal.

The mood of the Dominion general along with his soldiers had changed only a matter of hours ago. Looking back, Madison could hardly believe how quickly the situation had fallen apart once their presence to the Tal'darim had been known. Apparently the Protoss fanatics had chosen to investigate the situation a lot more quickly than he had anticipated. He had still been ordering the Dominion engineers to hide the downed Protoss Scout and Observer in the dense foliage of the jungle when another Scout had flown over their position. Despite frantic gunfire from the Dominion marines, the Scout was able to quickly maneuver out of the way and withdraw. When that had happened, Madison knew that he and his boys had to get off the jungle moon immediately or there would be no hope of them getting off at all.

He had immediately given the order for all SCVs still mining at the terrazine altars to abort whatever mining they were doing and fall back to the Command Center, still hidden in the deep jungle foliage. The lead SCV pilot had reported to him that when that order had been issued, the SCVs had just completed harvesting the 350th canister of terrazine. To Madison, this was considered enough. It may have fallen short of the 400 canisters that the emperor had ordered him, but as far as he was concerned, it should be close enough. Whatever the emperor's plans may be, even he would understand the need to improvise. For the Dominion general, it was more of a matter of saving the lives of his soldiers.

Unfortunately, he too had made a serious error in underestimating the Protoss. Convinced that the Bel'Shir jungle foliage would mask the Command Center from being spotted from aerial reconnaissance, the Tal'darim had quickly proved him wrong. Instead of attacking the Dominion troops as Madison had anticipated, the Protoss had brought in their air power and struck at the Dominion Command Center. As reports of Protoss Void Rays were approaching the installation, Madison frantically ordered as many marines as possible to intercept them so that the Protoss wouldn't cut off their escape route.

The reports after that had both relieved and shaken him deeply. The Dominion marines were able to get to the Command Center in time to return fire at the Void Rays, and this had prevented them from reducing the vital installation to ashes. Unfortunately, as Madison had discovered, the Protoss didn't need to. While the Command Center itself was in reasonable condition, the Void Ray attacks had damaged its Atlas Boosters. This meant that until repaired, it was no longer possible for the installation to lift off into the air.

Many of the Dominion officers had argued and recommended to him to simply abandon the Command Center and just radio the Dropships to come down and pick up all the troops on the ground, and every part of Madison wanted to agree. However, he knew this was simply not an option. All of the 350 terrazine canisters that had been collected from the Tal'darim altars were stored within the Command Center, and to abandon it would mean all of their harvesting efforts had been for nothing. While the Dominion marines didn't particularly care about saving the terrazine substance, Madison knew that if he returned empty handed to Mengsk, the emperor would simply order him down to Bel'Shir to try again, and there would be no way he could pull off such a stunt once more with the slender resources of men and material at his disposal.

To that end, he made it perfectly clear that the Command Center must be protected and had to lift off of Bel'Shir. This had provoked resentment from the marines, but surprisingly enough, a decent amount of them saw reason behind Madison's logic and accepted the fact that they were going to have to stay on the jungle moon for a bit longer.

For others, this proved to be extremely discouraging news. When on the battlefield, most marines had their hands full pumping out bullets at their enemies. Few of them had the time to pay attention to the Dominion engineers building and repairing buildings and vehicles, even if it would later become beneficial to them. In fact, even during lulls in the fighting, few marines cared about what the Dominion engineers did in their repair work, and this meant that none of them knew how long such work would take.

Now, given the critical manpower factor and the constant dwindling supply of ammunition for all of their weapons, Madison saw that the surviving Dominion officers were radioing the engineers every few minutes, however heavy the fighting was on the frontline. He couldn't blame them. They were all demanding news on just how much longer it would take before the Atlas Boosters could be repaired so that they could all get off this moon.

The engineers' responses did nothing to encourage them either. Every single time that the Dominion officers had contacted them, the engineers had always responded by saying that they were going as fast as they could. The general could clearly see the impatience on the officers' faces, as well as the sheer frustration in realizing that they could do nothing to help the engineers. Some of the Dominion marines on the defense line looked as if they were about to explode with impatience, and were demanding a more definite answer from the engineers.

Madison shook his head. This impatience and frustration was clearly getting on everyone's nerves, including his own. But constantly pestering the engineers to get the Atlas Boosters fixed was obviously not going to get them to go faster, nor would it make their jobs any easier. This was just something he knew that his troops would just have to wait it out.

Even so, the thought of being powerless to do anything about it bred pessimism and despair on the frontlines, and the general could see that this was clearly affecting his surviving officers as well. For everyone's sake, he had to hold it together. If his troops got the impression that he lost hope of making it off Bel'Shir alive, then they would all fall like dominoes.

At this point the general alarm went off again, and this time, the Protoss came at them much more rapidly than had been anticipated. No sooner did the marines on the frontline raise their rifles did a Scout suddenly swoop down upon them, its photon blasters blazing.

"Shoot it out of the sky!" a Dominion officer shouted, but it was no use. The Scout's weapons had a longer range compared to the marines' rifles, and its speed and agility proved to be every bit as quick and graceful. Within a matter of seconds, the Tal'darim air superiority fighter had strafed the Dominion defensive line, and the cry came up for medics from the marines.

"Medivac ships, this is General Madison," the general spoke into his comm-link. "Where the hell are you? We've got more wounded here!"

"The Protoss still have plenty of air power here, sir," came the reply. "Whatever Vikings that aren't with you on the ground all have their hands full trying to keep the skies clear."

"The medics here are running out of supplies!" Madison shouted. "I need you people down here to help the wounded!"

"We're doing everything we can right now, sir. Some of our Wraiths managed to get through the Protoss ships. They should be coming within visual range of you any minute now."

"Zealots incoming!" one of the marines shouted, as the surviving marines opened up with their gauss rifles. Bullet casings clattered to the ground as the sounds of battle raged.

"Reapers, detonate the charges!" Madison ordered.

A massive explosion rocked the battlefield as the Dominion Reapers entered the codes into their wrist systems, as the piles of D-8 explosive charges were set off right in front of the frontlines. But to the marines' shock, some of the Zealots nevertheless survived and came within striking distance of them.

"Hold them off!" A Marauder shouted, firing his punisher grenades from built-in grenade launcher. However only a moment later, he was blown apart. The other Marauders turned to see Tal'darim Immortals were also moving into position. A few of them were already within range, their phase disruptors raining death on the defensive line.

"Reapers, concentrate fire on them!" A Dominion officer shouted, as the Dominion Reapers opened up with their P-38 pistols. As they were light attacks, the Immortals' hardened shields did not activate. Unfortunately, due to the longer ranges of the Protoss cybernetic warrior, it also meant that the Reapers had to get within range, and many were slaughtered before they could cause any significant damage. Before long, the surviving ones were forced to retreat back to the defense line or risk being completely torn apart by them.

"Vikings, don't let the Zealots through!" Madison commanded, as the Dominion Vikings continuously fired from their gatling cannons. The recoils shook the mechanical hybrids, but despite the fact that Zealot after Zealot fell to the ground bleeding, more of them continued to rush forward towards the Dominion line.

Suddenly, the skies above some of the Vikings cracked lightning blue. The Dominion marines watched in shock as Tal'darim High Templars moved into position and unleashed the power of their psionic storms right over the Vikings' positions. A few of the mechanized hybrids were able to move out of the way, but as the storms had been cast over such a wide area, they had left many more Vikings a smoking ruin.

Some of the marines rushed to taking the Vikings' place, only to let out a cry as a massive orange beam engulfed them. Madison watched wide eyed as Tal'darim Colossus walkers emerged out of the jungle foliage, their thermal lances targeting the Dominion troops.

"Where's that Wraith support?" he shouted. "I need those Colossi taken down now or we're done for!"

"We're coming in hot, general," came the reply. "Targeting the Colossus walkers now, sir."

Dominion marines and War Pig mercenaries looked up into the sky and cheered as Wraith fighters swooped down and unleashed their gemini missiles from their rocket pods. Because of their height, the Colossi were easily sighted, as the missiles rammed into the golden hulls. One of them toppled over from the sheer intensity of the firepower, while others moved quickly away towards the Stalkers to seek protection.

Other Stalkers blinked about on the battlefield, much to the anger and frustration of the marines. Some of them proved to be exceptionally experienced, able to blink within range to unleash the firepower of their particle disruptors, before quickly blinking away once more. Dominion medics rushed from one place to another to tend to the wounded marines, Marauders, and Reapers, and Madison could see that they were clearly getting overwhelmed.

"Engineers, just how much more time are you guys going to need?" he demanded angrily into his comm-link, as he watched more Zealots make a rush towards the defense line. "My boys are getting hammered here! We're reduced to stripping the weapons from the dead and wounded for ammunition!"

"I'm sorry sir," one of the engineers answered. "But to fix this Atlas Booster isn't exactly a simple task."

Madison growled in frustration. "Right now, I don't care anymore how well you do it. If it's enough to get the Command Center to lift off and fly, I'll take it. Now, how much longer is this going to take?"

"Well if you're just going to settle for that, then maybe another hour, sir."

"Another hour still?" the general was not pleased at all. "If the Protoss attacks intensify, we're not going to be able to last that long! You've got 20 minutes, fix those damn boosters already!"

Switching to another channel, Madison knew it he would need to get all the Dominion transports he's got left down to the surface of Bel'Shir as soon as possible. The danger was still far from over.

* * *

**Imperial Palace, Augustgrad, Korhal**

Mengsk listened carefully as the Dominion officers briefed him through the communicator in the Korhal Palace. The emperor was clearly displeased, not only with the situation in Korhal City, but with the actions of his son Valerian as well.

"We've been able to intercept some of the other Dominion freighter ships and turn them back around," the officer on the other line reported.

"How large a freighter are we talking here?" the emperor demanded.

"Some of the biggest ones the Dominion use for cargo movement, both for civilian usage and military operations. Those ones could carry over 100,000 tons of supplies if fully loaded. One of which had successfully landed in the Korhal City starport. Within minutes, the starport personnel had unloaded them onto trains, where they were taken straight to Korhal City."

"Did any others get through?"

"Just three of them," the officer replied. "They were of smaller freighters and couldn't hold as much, but overall, I'd say before we stopped the transports from going to Korhal City, the combined efforts of all the freighters would have landed about 250,000 tons of supplies at the starport. According to what you've said about mayor Kirkwood's requests, that won't be enough to completely resolve the situation, but I'm sure he knows that too. He's probably talking it out with his city officials to find a way to stretch the resources even more to make these supplies last. I'm not the expert on that, I'd estimate he could probably make it last about two weeks, give or take a day or two. During that time, I'm sure he'll be making requests to other cities on Korhal for relief aid and such."

Mengsk clenched his teeth in frustration. Valerian was becoming a severe thorn in his side for such actions. He never really understood that boy. There were qualities that made him strong, but there were so many that made him weak that at times, the emperor hardly even recognized his own son.

Among the major flaws Valerian had was the fact that he still believed in compassion and ruling with kindness towards his people, and that by doing so, it would win over the people's trust and praise to him. As far as Mengsk was concerned, this was nothing but wishful thinking. The citizens of the Dominion were little more than whiners, and the emperor had recognized this very quickly. It was for this reason that he knew that ruling with an iron fist and by making cold and calculated decisions was the right one.

Because of the constant whining problems from the public, Mengsk knew that by giving in to their requests, it would be nothing more than a form of appeasement. And as he had learned long ago, appeasement only makes the aggressor more aggressive. It meant that by giving in, the people would just keep demanding more and more out of him, and that would cause a serious strain on other, more important matters that he had to deal with.

This was especially true now, in a time of war. The Zerg invasion may have been stopped, but their defeat was another matter altogether. Raynor's actions on Char may have returned Kerrigan to human form again, but the Zerg were a force to be reckoned with long before she had been transformed into the Queen of Blades, he understood that now. Certainly by deinfesting her, it was a severe blow to the Zerg, but by now, Mengsk had changed his view overall Zerg threat in the aftermath of the Char invasion. According to the reports from scouts flying over Dominion worlds that had been infested by the Zerg during the invasion, while there was no evidence to suggest that the Zerg forces down there were massing for any major offensive operations, the fact remained that the scouts still drew a considerable amount of hostile fire from the hive clusters if they got within too close a distance. This meant that even with the Queen of Blades to issue them orders, the Zerg forces were still vigorously defending the territory they overran, which was exactly what some of his generals had pointed out.

Mengsk sighed in frustration. Although Raynor had foiled his attempt to eliminate Kerrigan once and for all on Char, he had still hoped that the situation could be somewhat salvaged by clearing the Zerg infested worlds. Without their queen, the Zerg could be easily steamrolled right over, and the public would praise him for such actions. Now it was clear this was no easy task, as the vile creatures down there would stubbornly resist until the end, regardless of how mighty a force challenged them.

Still, he had his reasons for not immediately clearing out the Zerg infested planets, for turning the mass numbers of refugee ships away from the Dominion Core Worlds, as well as decision to send so few amounts of supplies of relief aid to the people of Korhal City. Being an emperor who ruled with an iron fist meant that compassion and sympathy were not among the options in leadership. Rather, what was needed was the need to be ruthless, and that the power of that fear would bring about obedience from his people.

This was exactly how the Dominion was defined, that made it the most powerful force in the Koprulu Sector, and this was how to be a true leader. Valerian's sympathy and compassion were for a dream world, one that could never be fully recognized into reality. Such characteristics would inevitably allow the Dominion's enemies to crush Mengsk's mighty empire, and that was something he would make sure would never come to pass.

And yet, the power of fear had fallen short of expectations when he had addressed the people of Korhal City. Clearly when the people had nothing left to lose, even the presence of the all-powerful Dominion emperor himself wasn't enough to get them to tremble in fear. It was for this reason that Mengsk had sought to starve the vast majority of the people in Korhal City to death. If they refused to bow before him, they would perish for their insubordination. This was exactly how the Dominion throne functioned, where the position of power was paid with lives, blood, and death. Unfortunately, Valerian proved to be stubborn, as he was unwilling to accept the inevitable.

As if on cue, the Dominion officer spoke up again, "Emperor, due to your son's actions in delivering the mass amounts of supplies and aid to the people of Korhal City, I hope you realize the implications of this."

"That the people there would be able to carry on with their lives, I already know that," Mengsk shot the officer an annoyed glare.

"It's more than that, sir. By now, I'm sure the Korhal City residents would have known that these supplies had been flown in by Prince Valerian's decree, and not yours. You only made a speech promising them aid, but your son was the person who had delivered on that promise."

"I don't see what the problem is," the emperor shrugged. "The people there can be easily manipulated. I'll simply tell them that Valerian was acting on my orders to deliver the emergency supplies to Korhal City."

"That's not going to work this time, your excellence," the officer said softly. "We had intercepted some of the transmissions from the starport personnel. They had been in direct contact with the freighter crews, and they now have confirmation that the supplies were flown in by Prince Valerian's decree, and that you had nothing to do with it. It means the Korhal City inhabitants are now praising your son for doing what you did not."

Mengsk gritted his teeth as the officer continued, "Emperor, you must understand that if this continues, your position on the throne will be threatened even more. Ever since James Raynor and his terrorist friends made the broadcasts on Korhal, your approval ratings and popularity have been going downhill. After Prince Valerian had praised Raynor for his actions on Char in defeating the Zerg there and thus stopping the whole invasion, those ratings dropped even more. In fact, it had gotten so low that even more Dominion fringe worlds turned against you and declared their independence from the Dominion, while the civilians on the core worlds are demanding new leadership. Stopping the rioting certainly didn't change their minds about it, although we were fortunate enough to convince them to put those feelings on hold for the time being because we're still in a state of war."

He took a breath and continued, "Now, with your son helping out the people that you promised but didn't actually do, his popularity is steadily rising, while yours would remain low. The point I'm making is that the actions of your son is quickly winning the people over, and they seem to be in favor of him, not you."

The emperor scowled. "I can handle Valerian myself. In case you forgot, I'm the Dominion emperor, and he's only the Crown Prince. I have the greater measure of power here."

"He obviously doesn't share your view of being an emperor than kills his own people, especially not in the case of helpless women and children."

"That comes with this position, soldier," Mengsk shot back. "Besides, if Valerian is unwilling to see this, then I will see to it that he'll _never_ ascend to the throne."

Off the officer's confused look, the emperor continued, "These actions that he had ordered will now do nothing but feed Valerian's ego and overconfidence, and that'll be his downfall when he slips up. The way I see it, he's bathing in their praise and thinking that he's already the Dominion emperor. I'll personally drive the message to him that the Dominion throne is still a long ways away. If he thinks a few small actions like these would be enough for him to just waddle over and take the emperor position, he's going to be sorely disappointed."

"With all due respect, it's obvious that Prince Valerian has every intention to become emperor. He may not be like you in that sense, but I have a feeling he may share your ambition. Your son may not command the whole Dominion as you do, but that doesn't mean he has no leadership potential," the officer pointed out. "You said it yourself that in battles, it's never a smart idea to underestimate your enemy. I fear that here, you may be underestimating your own son. Regardless of what you see him, there are those who see the potential within the young prince."

"He's weak and unworthy to be on the throne. He lacks the qualities necessary to be a leader," Mengsk said angrily. "He still has his uses to me, which is why he's worth more alive to me than dead. But rest assured, if Valerian gets too ambitious and decides it's time for the crown to land on him, I'll personally put a stop to it and make sure he remains obedient on the sidelines, the way it always should be."

* * *

**En Route to Deadman's Port, Dead Man's Rock**

Captain Bock looked out of the window of his Dropship and sighed. He, along with a handful of Dominion troops, were among the lucky ones. They were able to successfully break out of the Dominion base, despite it being assaulted from every direction from the mercenaries as well as James Raynor's Raiders. By the time his Dropship had lifted off into the sky, the attackers were already hammering at the inner defense belt of base. Ridgeway had been withdrawn from the area once the mercenaries had penetrated to the middle defense line, and this had provoked severe protests from many other Dominion officers who looked to the general for leadership.

He too was among them, despite the fact that he and Ridgeway disagreed on many occasions, especially when it came to dealing with the people on Dead Man's Rock. Nevertheless, withdrawing the general away from the battlefield had proven to be a severe blow to Dominion morale, and such an action had began to convince the troops in the base that there was little prospect of holding out against the combined assault from both the mercenaries and the Raiders.

Casualties had been appalling to the cutthroats, and the emperor predicted that they would break and run from all the bloodshed, something that Bock concurred with. However despite his predictions, nothing of the sort had happened. Instead, the mercenary forces had pushed forward, seemingly determined to defeat the Dominion forces regardless of the cost to them.

To make matters even worse, as the attack had continued on the base, other mercenary forces from the lawless world had joined in to assist Mira Han's troops and the Raiders. This was something that virtually no one had believed could happen since the Dominion operated under the assumption that the mercenary organizations on Dead Man's Rock were greedy and selfish, which would have made it impossible for them to put aside their differences and work together with one another, regardless of the circumstances.

This was the Raiders' fault. Because they possessed modern military equipment, it had given those scumbags hope that there would be a chance of success. As much as Bock hated to admit it, they were right. Prior to the assault, the Dominion captain saw very little of James Raynor and his Raiders. After all, none of their actions in the past four years had caused any significant harm to the Dominion. Even after what had happened on Korhal, Bock continued to believe that it was only a matter of luck, as the only reason James Raynor had succeeded was due to the fact that the Odin heavy walker had been at his disposal, and that machine had been engineered by the Dominion anyway. The same was true after he had seen Prince Valerian's statements in the aftermath of the Char invasion. Rather than believe the Crown Prince of the Dominion, Bock simply assured himself that it was the Dominion troops that took part in the invasion that did all the work, while James Raynor and his Raiders just stood on the sidelines and observed.

Now, however, despite his cocky and arrogant attitude, even Bock was finally forced to reevaluate them. Clearly the Raiders were not a group of terrorists who'd run at the first sign of danger. The Dominion base defenses had taken its toll on them as well, and Bock had seen with him own eyes of the numbers of infantrymen being carried away and tended to by medics, a testament to the Dominion's base defenses. However despite this, the Raiders had continued to press forward, instead of simply getting off the lawless world in order to save themselves from being part of the casualties from the Apocalypse-Class nuclear weapons.

To risk their necks just to save a bunch of scoundrels and murderers seemed illogical to Bock. The mercenaries here on Dead Man's Rock weren't loyal to anyone but themselves. Ridgeway had told him that Mira Han and the Raiders had temporarily teamed up to recover the valuable transmissions that Raynor later broadcasted on Korhal, but this had suited Han's goals as well, as Bock knew that everyone on this lawless world despised the Dominion. Even so, to have that alliance still in effect was something that never occurred to the captain.

Of a far greater shock to him, and to the rest of the Dominion troops on the base, was when Ridgeway had informed him that the former Queen of Blades herself was fighting alongside the Raiders. Apparently the vicious ruler of the Zerg was once the terran ghost Sarah Kerrigan, having been taken by the swarm and infested. Ridgeway informed him that Raynor's actions on Char had somehow reversed this infestation, which meant that Kerrigan was now back to her old self once more.

As far as Bock was concerned, this was sheer insanity. After all the suffering she had caused onto not just the Dominion, but to humanity, how could anyone possibly consider trusting her? As with many other Dominion officers, the captain had been expecting the Raiders and mercenaries to fight her instead because she posed a greater threat, yet they had all chosen to fight alongside her. Their combined efforts had proven to be extremely effective against the Dominion base, and many of their defensive plans had been ruined due to Kerrigan's actions. She had played a major part in protecting the Raiders and mercenaries alike, and there were many Dominion officers who felt that the base could have been held had it not been for her.

Regardless, by now Bock was certain that the Dominion base back at the Toxic Slums had been overrun. There might still be a few isolated pockets holding out, but most of the Dominion troops would have either been killed or were forced to lay down their arms. Nevertheless, he still had the opportunity to see that the Raiders and mercenaries pay a steep price for their victory.

He turned his head to the cockpit. "Pilot, talk to me. How far away are we from Deadman's Port?"

"Not far," came the reply. "We should be within visual range of the settlement in less than 20 minutes. Captain, are you certain this is a good idea?"

"Of course it is," Bock answered, looking at the Apocalypse-Class nuclear warhead, and then to the other Dominion troops in the Dropship with him. All of them expressed signs of agreement. "Those cutthroats may have been able to destroy our base on Dead Man's Rock, but I can still make sure they won't have a place for the celebration."

"Sir, you have to realize that once the mercenaries find out that one of the nukes is missing, they're going to head to Deadman's Port and Paradise to look for it," the pilot pointed out. "Don't forget, General Ridgeway had threatened to detonate the nukes on those two settlements if Mira Han's location wasn't revealed, so they'll still expect those places to be the likely targets. In addition, we only have a very small escort force left to protect you. The Raiders and mercenaries had made sure that only a small number of Dominion ships were lucky enough to break out of the base and escape. There's no possible way we can engage them with what we've got at our disposal."

"We won't have to," Bock assured him. "The nuke will be remote detonated, no countdown timer whatsoever. If we get lucky, we might even take some of the Raiders and mercenaries down, along with all of Deadman's Port. We just need to go there, plant the nuke, then head back to the Dominion BattleCruisers in orbit. It'll send a message to the people of Dead Man's Rock that by choosing to mess with the Dominion, they're now going to get burned for it."

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Jim stood to the side with Mal, and Nova besides the Dominion decryption personnel. Colonel Kim was present as well, along with Lieutenant Corbin and Kate Lockwell and her UNN journalists. Apparently just minutes ago, the decryption boys announced that they had made a breakthrough in the transmissions, and now they were all gathered in the building to hear the news.

"So what's the big secret?" Kim asked. "Anything useful on the satellite?"

"That's what we're all about to find out," one of the decrypters answered. "The only thing I can say for certain right now is that whatever these transmissions are, they don't belong to the Confederacy. Confederate transmissions are all heavily encoded and encrypted, but the ones here don't have that level of security. So either the transmissions are so unimportant that the Confederacy didn't really care if they got intercepted—"

"Or it's something the Confederates wanted others to know," Jim finished.

"It's certainly a possibility. The Confederacy had its list of enemies as well, though I don't quite see the need to use intercepted transmissions as a weapon. Until the Zerg came and overran Tarsonis, their military was the most powerful force in the Koprulu Sector. They could have just taken care of their enemies with bullets and bombs, rather than use words."

"Just play the transmissions," Nova said calmly. "It's pretty obvious that you don't know what they are any more than we do. Now it's time we all find out."

The decrypter nodded and entered a few keystrokes on the computer. "Accessing the transmissions now."

A female adjutant voice suddenly began to speak. **"Accessing intercepted transmissions from the terrorist group Sons of Korhal. Location: New Gettysburg."**

General Edmond Duke's voice suddenly made itself heard, **"Mengsk, I've got bad news. The defenses failed. Despite the efforts of my Alpha Squadron boys and your Sons of Korhal Elite Guard, they weren't enough. Both had inflicted plenty of casualties to Raynor and his boys, but his forces were still able to break through."**

Mengsk's voice spoke next, **"What about the Confederate ion cannon? That should be enough to stop them from leaving Tarsonis."**

**"Raynor already factored that into his plan, sir. Reports from my surviving Alpha Squadron troops just reported that he and his troops had already destroyed the Confederates' ultimate weapon. Now there's nothing to keep them from escaping Tarsonis."**

**"A small setback,"** Mengsk spoke in an assuring tone. **"Raynor's skills are good, I'll give him that much, but he's still weak and inexperienced. **_**You**_**, on the other hand, have had far more battle experience than that man. So now, I don't need him anymore."**

**"He's going to come after you for revenge, you know,"** Duke warned. **"The way he reacted from your actions at New Gettysburg, it's pretty obvious that the guy's really pissed at you now. Not to mention the fact that you just lost your strongest ghost operative down there."**

**"Also just a minor setback, Duke. I've already got one as a replacement,"** came the reply.

**"What are you talking about?"**

**"As Tarsonis was being overrun by the Zerg, my boys had intercepted a Confederate transmission from Tarsonis City,"** Mengsk answered. **"Apparently they had found a young girl by the name of Nova Terra, with exceptionally high psionic capabilities and potential. She's also younger than Kerrigan, which means her uses as a ghost would be very valuable to me. Granted from what I see, Kerrigan's psionic abilities still appear to be the stronger of the two, but that doesn't matter. I'll simply give Nova a choice to become part of the Ghost Program, or force her in if she refuses. Either way she's going to become a ghost, whether she likes it or not. Given her strong psionic potential, I wouldn't be slightest bit surprised if the Confederacy was thinking of training her as one as well."**

**"I hate to burst your bubble, Arcturus,"** Duke spoke up again. **"But ghosts are still only human beings, they're not gods. You can say all you want about how deadly they are on the battlefield, but the truth is there's still limits to even what they can do. Even if you could get this Nova Terra to become loyal to you, she's still only one person."**

**"That's why I'll be taking the rest of the Confederacy with me as well,"** Mengsk replied. **"With Tarsonis now overrun by the Zerg, the Confederate capital world is no more. With them gone, I now have the chance to become what I've wanted for a **_**long**_** time: supreme ruler of a great empire. The rest of the Confederacy will be reorganized into the Terran Dominion, and I'll stand supreme as the leader of the most powerful force in the Koprulu Sector. With the whole Confederate military at my command, Raynor will be weak and ineffective against me. Nothing he does will be able to harm me since his force comprises of maybe a few hundred people, at best. By adding the Confederate military into the Sons of Korhal and Alpha Squadron, and then converting them into the Terran Dominion, I'll have tens of millions soldiers at my command, and Raynor will be brought before me, either alive or in pieces. After that, I'll make sure that he'll be stifled, so no one will ever know the truth that it was I who had lured the Zerg to Tarsonis and killed off the Confederacy."**

**"Speaking of the Zerg, what about them?"** Duke asked. **"Your use of the Zerg to wipe out Tarsonis may have been ingenious, I'll give you that, but you and I both saw just how many Zerg the psi emitters had attracted. We had both counted in the billions, and that might not even be all of them. Even if you remain as the most powerful terran force in the Koprulu Sector, that'd only be true against **_**terran**_** enemies. What are you going to do if the Zerg decide to strike? There's no way we can beat **_**them**_** in a battle of numbers, you know."**

**"The Zerg are nothing but mindless animals, Duke,"** Mengsk said. **"They too can be easily manipulated and deceived. Don't forget, we already have the weapon to do just that."**

**"The psi emitters? But those lure in too many of them. You said it yourself even before using them on Tarsonis that the Confederates weren't able to control it."**

**"That's only because the Confederates were still far from complete in their research before I used their technology against them on their capital world. They may be arrogant, but not all Confederate researchers are dumb. I'm sure that if they had more time, they would have been able to develop a psi emitter that could lure in more manageable numbers of Zerg."**

**"So you plan to keep this technology?"** Duke asked.

**"How right you are, general,"** Mengsk answered. **"They will still be of use to me, and especially if I can get the emitters to be more manageable. I have a gut feeling that once the Terran Dominion is established, it's going to have a list of enemies almost just as long as that of the Confederacy. I can use the Zerg to deal with them, but unlike the Confederates, I'll only use the emitters when I'm convinced that it won't bring in the whole horde. It'll be a much cheaper way to deal with my enemies, and once I use the Dominion forces to save what I can, they'll worship me as their savior. In time, every planet in the Koprulu Sector will see me as just that, and they will all join in the Dominion's cause."**

**"You said you weren't going to save all of them,"** Duke pointed out.

**"Death is the currency when it comes to power, you know this,"** Mengsk replied. **"I'll simply sit back and wait for enough to die. Once they do, then I'll step in. The people may complain that I didn't come sooner, but they'll have to accept what they can get. ****After all, they'll think the Zerg just so happened to come to their world, not that I lured them there.****"**

**"You know you won't be able to pull off such things forever,"** the general warned. **"The common people are idiots and can be easily deceived and manipulated, but there **_**are**_** those that are intellectuals. Sooner or later they're going see that the numbers aren't adding up."**

**"Those people are easy, Duke. All it takes is a simple arrangement to have them assassinated, which I'd probably do with the Ghost Program, now that it's mine to command. The public will think it's an accident or something, and it will instill fear to them for daring to challenge me. That's how it'll** **work once I'm crowned emperor of the Dominion. You kill some of your own people, the rest will get the message and bow before you in unquestioning obedience. Besides, it's not like such things will be made public, so the common citizens will still only see me as the savior of humanity from the alien menace."**

**"Which leaves just one loose end left, sir. What are you going to do about Raynor? He knows the truth about what **_**really**_** happened on Tarsonis,"** Duke said.

**"As the ruler of the Dominion, I'll have everything at my fingertips,"** Mengsk assured. **"That'll include all the media branches, along with the whole justice system. As the emperor, I will become the voice of law, order, and justice, and the people will bow at my feet. Suppose Raynor gets lucky and manages to elude capture, I'll simply use the media to portray him as a criminal and terrorist, intend on spreading fear, chaos, and violence throughout the whole Koprulu Sector. He has no real evidence against me except his word, and that'll never win. One way or another, Raynor will have to accept defeat and know that I outsmarted him and that there's nothing he can do about it. Right now he's probably off somewhere sulking because he can't take the fact that I've already won."**

**"Raynor isn't a man to give up that easily, sir,"** Duke pointed out. **"You said it yourself that it was the Confederates' arrogance that had brought this upon them here on Tarsonis. Aren't you making a similar mistake here?"**

**"Once I have enough worlds annexed into the Dominion, it won't matter, Duke,"** Mengsk answered. **"Raynor will be nothing but a speck of dust trying to delay the inevitable while everyone else had already moved on. The expansion and annexation will continue until my goal is achieved. The Koprulu Sector is rightfully mine to rule, and everyone living being, whether it'd be** **terran, Protoss, or even the Zerg, will kneel before me as their master. They'll all bow before me in obedience or they can die in defiance."**

The adjutant's voice spoke up once more. **"No more relevant data available."**

Without another word, the transmission feed cut off, leaving everyone in the room in total shock. It became so quiet in the room that one could hear a pin drop.


	80. Chapter 80

**Author's Note: Blackhole1, you and I had our similarities for my chapter 68 and your chapter 71. In your chapter 71, you introduced Charlie Davis, public relations extraordinaire, where he and Mengsk discussed plans to get him out of the mess. Similarly, in my chapter 68, I introduced LeJuin, Dominion propaganda minister, to do the same thing.**

**The difference, however, was that you told me via PM that yours was only going to be a one shot, you hear him for one chapter and that's the end of the story. Mine will take a different approach. In mine, LeJuin will go to the public to do his part in bailing the emperor out of the mess he's currently in.**

**To all of my readers, this will be the final update to this fic before Heart of the Swarm is released. It's only a few days away, and I'm sure many of you will be busy playing it on release day anyway.**

**For the status of the fic though, it's going to have to slow down. With work and job hunting still going on, it's taking a serious toll on me. Updates will of course continue, but it will now be at a speed of 1 chapter every 8 to 10 weeks until further notice. It is my hope that by early to mid summer I can resume at regular speed, but no promises.**

**For my readers, I hope you can understand this as we all have priorities of our own. For the fic itself, don't worry. We may have passed the halfway point, but "Aftermath and Revelations" is still _far_ from over.**

* * *

Chapter 80

**Styrling, Korhal**

Dominion Propaganda Minister LeJuin exited the Dominion Armored Personnel Carrier, escorted by elite Dominion marines. He looked around at the sight before him, before stepping out onto the streets of Styrling.

As with the rest of Korhal, Styrling had been completely turned to glass back in 2491 when the Confederacy launched 1000 Apocalypse-Class nuclear missiles at the planet and eradicated virtually the whole Korhal population. As of four years ago, the metropolis city had been rebuilt, though the levels of radiation had remained a danger to the inhabitants in the city. Styrling had been subjected to another brutal event of destruction when the United Earth Directorate had stormed in and defeated the Dominion forces. To make matters worse, the UED Armada had also taken control of the Zerg, and this meant that Styrling had been subjected to both UED and Zerg occupation during the Brood War.

Fortunately, those days had passed, and now the great city had been decontaminated, modernized, and beautified with the help of Dominion tax revenues. Unfortunately, James Raynor's actions in Korhal City had shaken the confidence of the people in Styrling as well, and Emperor Mengsk had specifically instructed LeJuin to make propaganda speeches to unite the people of Korhal.

This was something he could have done without leaving his Propaganda Ministry, but LeJuin was not the type to sit in his chair all day. He understood the concept of gaining popularity, and that was to go out in public and to meet the people face to face. It would be a sign to show that he would not sit back in his secure location while other people were at risk. LeJuin felt that this was more than likely the reason why the emperor visited Korhal City as well, despite his all too brief stay there.

In his case, LeJuin knew that his task would be much harder in convincing the people of Styrling. In the case with Korhal City, it was a simple matter of appealing to the people's immediate needs, which were simply the amenities to survive in the aftermath of the Odin incident. Here, it was a matter of convincing the people to continue to put their faith in their emperor, and to stand behind him during the time of war.

LeJuin knew that the people of Styrling were also shocked at the transmissions that James Raynor had broadcasted from Korhal City, and the Styrling Police Force had spent a great deal of time and energy to stop the civilian riots and expressions of outrage at their emperor. The tensions in the city remain high, and even some of the police were beginning to have their doubts, beginning to wonder as to why they're still serving a war criminal who was responsible for the slaughter of billions of people on Tarsonis.

It was up to the Dominion propaganda minister to get them to see otherwise, and he knew this wouldn't be easy. As he continued to walk down the streets, he could see the people of Styrling giving him stares of contempt and disgust. Clearly the common people were not pleased to see him, but then again that applied to a lot of the wealthy or famous. The regular citizens tend to have the impression that such people were too proud to mingle with the commoners. The city itself was not full of such people, but given everything that had happened, it was hard for LeJuin to tell the city's overall impression.

Overall, Styrling still had the sight of a grandiose city, one that showed the might of the Terran Dominion. In the aftermath of the Brood War when the city had been rebuilt, there were buildings and installations that had been moved elsewhere. Prior to the city being glassed by the Confederacy, the UNN Tower was the headquarters of the Universal News Network, and the building was gracefully built in the old Korhal capital. This had not been rebuilt, as the UNN had been relocated to Korhal City. The same had been true for the Korhal Assembly Forum, intending to be the seat of the Korhal Senate.

On the other hand, places such as the Continental Building and LarsCorp Tower _were_ rebuilt, both of which still resided in Styrling. The latter was the headquarters of LarsCorp Technologies that was a terran arms manufacturer. It was LarsCorp that had developed the concept of the combat shield to the marines, and the 30mm of bonded carbide had helped Dominion marines significantly on the battlefield.

The Mengsk Skyspire had also been rebuilt, although the emperor had initially resisted such an idea as it had reminded him of his late father. It was only with the persuasion of Prince Valerian that Mengsk finally agreed to rebuild it, although the emperor still hardly set his eyes upon it, a complete contrast to his son, who had visited the Mengsk Skyspire often prior to the recent Zerg invasion.

By the time LeJuin had reached the city square, he could see that thousands of people from the city had already gathered there. This was to be expected, given that he had announced days ago that he would be arriving in the city of Styrling to deliver a speech on behalf of the Dominion emperor. There were those that were disgusted that Mengsk had sent him instead of coming to Styrling himself, while others felt that the emperor was too much of a coward to face his own people. Even more showed interest in hearing what the Dominion propaganda minister was going to say given everything that had transpired since the Zerg invasion.

Sensing the tension amongst his bodyguards, he urged them to remain calm as he stepped up onto the podium to address the people.

"Thank you for coming here today," LeJuin began. "These past few weeks and months have been quite straining, and it has certainly put the Dominion's resolve to the test, not just on Korhal, but on every Dominion world as well. The recent Zerg invasion had been one of great terror, and it had taken a great deal of time and energy before the might of the Dominion had finally brought it to a stop."

"Not from what we've heard from Prince Valerian's statements," one of the people from the crowd stated. "According to him, the Char invasion was a combined effort from the Dominion fleet and the rebel forces of James Raynor. You can argue that the rebel did nothing but stand on the sidelines, but the Dominion Prince had praised him for his actions, and some of us are not ready to believe that Prince Valerian was lying through his teeth about it all."

"I'm not going to be like that," the propaganda minister admitted. "I concede that James Raynor did play a role in the invasion, and he had indeed helped the Dominion forces to defeat the Zerg on Char. However the fact remains that the man had only succeeded with the might of the Dominion fleet assisting him. To that, I will admit that he did contribute to the victory on that volcanic ash world, but it was a much smaller contribution than you would think. The Zerg numbers on Char were in the billions, and had Raynor invaded Char alone, he and his forces would have been slaughtered without the Zerg even breaking a sweat."

"Then why would Prince Valerian lie to us and tell the people that James Raynor's actions was the key to the victory on Char?"

"Unlike the emperor and myself, Prince Valerian is one who sees James Raynor differently," LeJuin explained. "As you are all aware, ever since the Brood War ended, the media had portrayed the rebel commander as a terrorist and a severe threat to the integrity of the Dominion. His only goal is to see that the Dominion collapse on itself, and for there to be widespread chaos and public disorder. Even after all these years, he continued to defy Dominion authority and justice."

"If he's really like that, he's certainly one of the most capable terrorists the Dominion has ever gone up against," a woman spoke up from the crowd. "We've all watched the news, and we all know that the Dominion had devoted a great deal of time and resources to bringing James Raynor to justice. The emperor had continuously claimed over UNN that very soon, Raynor would be caught, and stability would return to the Koprulu Sector. Yet for all his boasts, no such thing happened."

"You're oversimplifying the whole matter. Emperor Mengsk is the ruler of the Dominion, not just some law enforcement officer. His responsibilities extend to far more than just catching Raynor and his terrorist group."

"So what? After the Brood War ended, the Zerg simply disappeared from sight," the woman countered. "None of the public had seen them for years until the invasion just recently. It's not like the Dominion had to deal with fighting them while catching Raynor or anything like that."

"You need to remember that in the immediate aftermath of the Brood War, the Dominion had been greatly weakened," LeJuin told her. "Four years ago, the Dominion was only a shadow of the force you see today. Don't forget, the United Earth Directorate had stormed Korhal back then. Despite the gallant efforts of the Dominion military, the UED forces had defeated us. To make matters even worse, they had somehow found a way to control the Zerg and enslave them, and then brought the slaved Zerg to Korhal. The UED forces were eventually defeated, but that didn't undo the damage they had caused to the Dominion."

Seeing murmurs of agreement from the crowd, LeJuin continued, "In addition, you're right in that the Zerg went silent for the next four years after the Brood War ended, but none of us knew that was going to happen in the immediate aftermath. Therefore, the immediate priorities were to rebuild the Dominion military forces in the event the Zerg launched an attack on the Dominion."

"Your buildups did nothing to stop the recent Zerg invasion," a man scoffed. "Despite the emperor's assurances that General Warfield would push the Zerg back, we all saw that he accomplished no such thing."

"The military buildup had slowed down after it had reached a certain point," the minister replied. "When Dominion analysts became certain that the Zerg were not going to be returning to the fray anytime soon, we had shifted our priorities elsewhere. It was exactly why we made greater efforts to rebuild Korhal. By now, it's much power modernized and beautiful than it had ever been."

"It was also boasted as the most heavily fortified Dominion world," another person in the crowd said sarcastically. "The emperor said repeatedly that Korhal could never be touched, and look what James Raynor did to Korhal City!"

"Only because of the Odin heavy walker being displayed there, and that was a Dominion war machine, not something Raynor and his rebels engineered themselves. His terrorists don't have the technology to build something that advanced, it's simply beyond their capabilities."

"It doesn't matter to the people as to just _how_ he did it, what matters is that he was able to penetrate down to Korhal. The broadcasts he made proved that our emperor is a murdering psychopath who hungers only for power and nothing more."

"This isn't the time to be criticizing the emperor," LeJuin reminded him. "When all of this blows over, I'm sure there will be investigations about what really happened on Tarsonis and the emperor's nature, but that's something that has to be set aside for the time being."

"So you expect us to just follow a madman?" A woman exclaimed.

"No, I expect you to put your differences aside about the emperor," LeJuin corrected. "In case you forgot, we're still in a state of war here. The Zerg invasion may have been stopped, but that does not mean they're no longer a threat anymore. There are still quite a number of Dominion worlds that the Zerg have infested and that have yet to be cleared. The Zerg have no intention of giving up their conquests, so we have to go in there and burn them out."

"You've said for years that the Dominion fleet has never been stronger," she shot back. "You made it clear that all of the Dominion's enemies would be too cowardly to make any attack on the Dominion, and if they were foolish enough to try, they'd all be easily brushed aside. Now you're saying that despite the Zerg defeat, they're still a force to be reckoned with, which seem to imply that you've lied to us in the past. Clearly the Dominion isn't as invincible as we were led to believe, and our enemies aren't as weak either."

"We're only people, you know," the minister replied. "We're far from flawless. I will admit that the Dominion military probably underestimated the Zerg when they had launched their invasion, but that doesn't mean they didn't do all they could to save lives."

"Save lives? We saw from the news that the Dominion fleet had simply pulled back to the core worlds! The fringe worlds were left defenseless against the Zerg!"

"It's a simple rule when it comes to war," Lejuin said calmly. "You save as many people as you possibly can. There was no possible way for the Dominion forces to save _everyone_, and you should know that."

"And you should know that there are limits to this concept of sacrificing a few to save many!"

"I hope you know that around 8 billion people had died during the course of the Zerg invasion," the minister said. "This was despite the best efforts of the Dominion military. It's for this reason that I ask you to put aside your differences for the emperor, at least for the time being. He is not a genocidal maniac, which is a complete contrast to the Zerg. If we fail in our war against them, we'll all be exterminated. The Zerg are creatures that can't be reasoned or negotiated with, which means victory or annihilation are the only two outcomes to this war. Personally, I prefer the former."

Seeing the rest of the crowd nod in agreement, LeJuin made his final point, "Look, everyone has flaws, the emperor is no exception to all this. But even if you believe that he doesn't have humanity's best interests at heart, you know for a fact that the Zerg certainly don't."

"And you expect us to side with the lesser of the two evils," the woman concluded.

"If that's what you want to call it," LeJuin replied. "The point is that the threat of the Zerg is still very real, and despite whatever had happened on Char, this war is not over. All of us have to stand together if we are to survive. This isn't a time to have petty internal conflicts, especially not ones that our enemies can exploit. The emperor made it clear in his speeches that strength lies in unity, and he isn't wrong about that. We need that unity here or none of us will survive against the Zerg."

Looking at the faces of the crowd, the minister could see signs of agreement. He sighed in relief. It wasn't as much as he hoped for, but he had won the people over, at least for the time being. Now it was up to the emperor to build on this advantage.

* * *

**Rail Network, Tarsonis**

One of the Dominion officers dashed over to the APC, snapping off a salute as Kim stepped out with the Dominion marines. "Colonel Kim, this is a bad place to be. We're relieved to see made it here alive and unharmed, but we can't guarantee your safety."

Kim nodded to the marines, and they move out towards the battlefield, some of them have already begun firing their gauss rifles at the Zerg Mutalisks swooping down to attack them. "There's no choice in the matter here, soldier. With our original landing sites already overrun by the Zerg, Giddings Station and Tarsonis Starport are the only places left for the Dropships to safely land and get us the hell out of here. Now both of those places are fine, there haven't been any Zerg attacks yet, but they're constantly attacking the rail network leading there. If we don't get the rails repaired, we're going to be trapped here while the Zerg overrun the whole of Tarsonis City."

"Casualties on our end haven't been as heavy as expected," the officer agreed. "Those creatures don't seem interested in attacking us."

"That's because they know that if they can destroy the rail system that leads out of the city, it'll cut off our only escape route," the female colonel told him. "They know there's no way we can beat them in a battle of numbers. Even with Raynor and his troops working alongside us, we're still outnumbered by the Zerg here. We can't win this battle, so the Dominion engineers have to repair the rails as soon as possible. Once that's done, we can get the train moving and make our escape."

"The Zerg are thinking along the same lines. The Mutalisk attacks have been getting heavier and heavier by the hour, and Zerg ground forces having also moved into position. Most of our engineers have been forced to take up arms to deal with them, which means there's no one left to repair the tracks anymore."

"That's what's going to change right now," Kim said in determination, as Goliaths and Thors moved past her, their mechanical feet clanking as they stomped onto the battlefield. She cocked her C-14 rifle and patted the officer on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go give the engineers a hand."

They got only a matter of yards when the shriek of the Zerg could be heard. Dominion marines around Kim opened fire, as the bullet casings clattered to the ground in their hundreds.

From her position Kim could see hundreds of Zerglings moving as quickly as they could to close in on them. The concentrated fire from the marines was mowing them down, but despite the piles of corpses, the hordes of Zerglings kept pushing forward.

"Thors! Unload your artillery!" she shouted.

A groan could be heard from some of the massive mechanical walkers, as their massive 250mm cannons deployed into position. When they fired, the effect was devastating. The ground shook as the artillery shells hit, and Zerglings were blown to pieces while others scurried to find cover, though without any success. When the smoke cleared, Kim could see hundreds of Zerglings scattered across the battlefield, most of their in pieces from the artillery barrage.

Stinger jeeps continuously fired from their 35mm High Explosive cannons as Hydralisks emerged out of the rubble. Some were lucky enough to unload their piecing needle spines, and marines next to Kim were pierced through the helmet and killed instantly. The Stingers kept up their fire, even though they knew that this would eventually cause their cannons to overheat. However, stopping was simply not an option. Despite the fact that line after line of Hydralisks were being cut down, more continued to move onto the battlefield. Some of them were beginning to get dangerously close to the Stingers to use their scythes and cut the marines apart.

"Marauders! Don't let them through!" Kim ordered.

The armored infantrymen opened fire with their punisher grenades, but the Hydralisks continued to press forward. One Marauder fired an explosive round at almost point blank range, but despite the fact that it ripped the creature's jaw apart, it nevertheless pressed forward and sank its scythe arm into the man's helmet, killing him instantly.

Some of the more wounded Hydralisks dashed towards the marines, and enough were able to get within range to also use their scythes. Still firing her C-14 rifle, Kim watched as some of the Dominion marines were forced to unlock their combat shields from their arms and manually use it to bash it into the creatures' hides. One cunning soldier took cover behind a wrecked Stinger jeep and ripped off its 35mm cannon and manually firing it into more incoming Zerglings.

Artillery shells suddenly rocked the field as Dominion Siege Tanks got into position. Deploying themselves behind the marines and infantrymen, their 100mm shock cannons opened up on their ground attackers, as Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Roaches were blown apart. Some of them tried to burrow underground to avoid the explosive shells, but many were unable to do so in time.

Kim clicked her radio. "SCVs! Move the Flaming Betties into position, now!"

Mechanical suits around her quickly moved about, carrying one of James Raynor's technological advancements. From the outset, it looked like an auto turret deployed by Ravens, but instead it was an advanced flamethrower developed by the Raiders. Despite its small size, it was extremely heavily armored, and Raynor had assured her that the flamethrower could dish it out far more effectively than the Firebats could.

This was evident to Kim only moments later, as the Flaming Betties spun up their gun shafts and ignited their flames. The screams of Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Roaches confirmed that the Raiders' weapons were indeed a force to be reckoned with.

Suddenly, an enormous explosion knocked her off her feet. Kim turned her head to see one of the Thors suddenly collapse onto itself.

"Banelings incoming!" an officer shouted. "Diamondbacks, stop them!"

The sounds of eviscerator rail guns screeched as the hover tanks opened fire. As the Banelings were extremely volatile, many exploded in a pile of acid as their thin carapace were pierced. Nevertheless, a few were still able to close within striking distance, and the screams of marines could be heard as the acids splashed onto their CMC armor.

"Reapers, detonate the charges now!" Kim ordered. "Stop the Banelings!"

An enormous explosion rocked the battlefield as the D-8 charges were set off. The shrieks of Banelings could be heard, but quickly passed as their volatile bodies exploded prematurely, splashing onto nearby Zerg creatures. As the smoke cleared, Kim could see Zerg Infestors had moved onto the battlefield, but arrived at the wrong moment. With their bodies covered in Baneling acids, they were severely weakened and easy prey for the Dominion marines. The infantrymen opened fire with their C-14 gauss rifles once more, and within a few minutes, all of the Infestors had perished.

A roar was heard from behind the rubble. Seconds later, Ultralisks smashed through, revealing their deadly Kaiser Blades. Despite the continued artillery support from the Siege Tanks, their thick carapaces proved their worth, and the massive beasts continued to press forward. Underneath them, Kim could see Zerglings and Roaches moving with the beasts, using them as cover against incoming fire.

"The legs! Aim for their legs!" she ordered.

The Thors complied, as their massive particle beam cannons blazed. Even the massive Zerg beasts could not withstand such a blow, and the Ultralisks collapsed onto the ground as their legs were cleanly blown off. The Zerglings and Roaches under them were simply crushed to death.

"We need Raven support!" A Firebat shouted, before he suddenly exploded in a fireball, the volatile burning fuel splashing onto nearby Reapers and sending them to the ground screaming in pain. Lurkers were also moving into position, their latest victim was that Firebat who had been unfortunate enough to be directly in the path of their deadly subterranean spines.

"Fall back!" Kim commanded. "Force the Lurkers to surface!"

As the marines retreated towards their perimeter, the Zerg creatures played right into their hands. Having no defensive capabilities at all above ground, the Lurkers were quickly mowed down by marine gunfire as soon as they surfaced.

In the air, Mutalisks continued to fight with the Vikings and Wraiths for air superiority, and the sounds of battle could be heard everywhere. Kim scowled in anger as pilots were reporting system failure and had to retreat for repairs, and this meant that the Goliath walkers would have to be used to fill in the shortages. However, as they were not as maneuverable, it also meant that they were more vulnerable to aerial Zerg attacks.

"Engineering team, this is Colonel Kim," she spoke into her radio. "We're keeping the ground Zerg at bay, at least for the time being. What's the status on those rail repairs?"

"We're going as fast as we can, ma'am," came the reply. "But as long as the Zerg keep up with the Mutalisk attacks, progress is going to remain slow."

"I'll see if I can get the Vikings and Wraiths to lure the Mutalisks away from you," she told them. "If I can do that, how much more time will you guys need?"

"Given the fact that the sun just rose, I'd estimate at least until late afternoon, colonel. I wish it could be sooner, but the last Mutalisk attack had done a number on the tracks, as well as left a number of our engineers dead. Even if we're left in complete peace and quiet, I don't think it can be any sooner."

"Then I suggest you people push it," Kim sighed. "The closer you get to completing the repairs, the more intense the Zerg attacks are going to get. We can buy you time, but we can't keep this up forever, so use whatever time you have wisely."

* * *

**En Route to Deadman's Port, Dead Man's Rock**

"Kerrigan, Mira Han's forces are searching frantically in Paradise as we speak," Franklin's voice came over the communicator channel. "So far there hasn't been any luck."

"That doesn't mean the nuke isn't there," Sarah told him. "I've already read the minds of the Dominion officers that we've captured. None of them apparently seems to know where the missing warhead is. This means that when the Dominion troops knew their base was going to fall, someone on the base had taken the weapon without telling anybody and tried to break out of there with it."

"Well the mercs have searched just about every corner of the Dominion base," he replied. "Let's just say their methods of interrogation aren't exactly pleasant. For the surviving Dominion troops there, getting beaten by neosteel clubs is considered gentle treatment."

"What's considered harsh?" she asked.

"Something along the lines of dismemberment and having your limbs cut off," Franklin answered. "The point is, despite all that, they finally concluded that the Dominion troops were telling the truth. That missing nuke isn't on the base anymore."

"It's why I'm on a Dropship and heading to Deadman's Port right now. The settlement is farther away from the Toxic Slums compared to Paradise, so it's a simple matter of reverse psychology. After all, with the Dominion base gone, it means whoever's got the nuke would have a very small escort to protect him. The logical step would be to detonate it at Paradise given its closer distance. However, we would all be expecting that and would have sent troops there to find him, so more than likely he's headed to Deadman's Port with the bomb instead. It doesn't take a genius to know they're trying to take their revenge for their defeat here on Dead Man's Rock."

"You know, if you succeed, you're just going to anger the Dominion even more, and you'll make Dead Man's Rock a target for Dominion military operations."

"We can deal with that later," Kerrigan said. "Right now we need to take care of the nuke problem. Now, if I happen to be wrong and the nuke really _is_ in Paradise, pass the word onto as many people as you can to exercise extreme caution. The warheads are designed to withstand quite a bit when they're not armed, but that doesn't mean if it gets caught in the crossfire it can't be set off. If it's there, let me know as soon as possible. We can't afford to take any chances with it."

She shut off the communicator before turning to the pilot. "How much longer before we reach Deadman's Port?"

"Just a few more minutes," he answered. "The outskirts of the city should be coming into visual range any second now."

As the Dropship continued to head towards the filthy city of Deadman's Port, Kerrigan looked out the window. Hey eyes widened at the sight. She had been expecting the settlement to be just like Paradise, covered in derelict vehicle hulks. Instead, she could see areas if dirt, grass, and even actual bodies of clear water.

"It looks like a whole new world here," she murmured softly.

"This area of Deadman's Port is," the mercenary pilot answered. "In 2495, this used to belong to the crime lord Scutter O'Banon."

"What happened to the guy?" Sarah asked.

"The mercenaries eventually discovered that he was working with the Dominion and conducting business ventures with them. Naturally the people weren't exactly pleased. Eventually, Commander Han and Colonel Orlan decided to temporarily put their differences aside and work together to kick the guy out. After that was done, since Orlan had the stronger military force, he took the place over for himself. Of course now that his troops have been integrated into Han's organization, this town is under her authority, just like the massive mansion at Paradise that once belonged to the crime lord Ethan Stewart."

She shuddered at the mention of his name. Even now, the actions she had done as the Queen of Blades in infesting him and turning him into her consort deeply shook her. The mercenaries here may now know her actions that well during her time with the Zerg, but she still had a long road ahead of her if she was to have even the slightest hope of redemption.

Sarah pushed those thoughts away as she looked out the window once more, turning her sights what appeared to be a small corporate town out the outskirts of Deadman's Port. It certainly befitted the characteristics of a crime lord or a great mercenary leader. The whole place was a heavily secured complex, with more than a dozen buildings, laser activated security measures, private swimming pools, and even lavish gardens and orchards. At the center of the complex was a massive mansion that rivaled the one that Mira Han had taken her husband Matt Horner into in Paradise. The approaches to the mansion were paved with elegant roads, each of them with dozens of well pruned trees.

She could even see a private landing field with System Runners loading and unloading cargo there, with thousands of security men and women moving about.

"That used to be O'Banon's elite army of bodyguards," the pilot told her. "It was his own private army, about 10,000 of them in number. After he was kicked out, Orlan took them as his own, and now they belong to Han's organization. Fortunately, their loyalties could be bought, and that made it all the easier as we didn't have to fight them for such a thing."

"So this is where your commander goes when she needs some recreational time?"

"Along those lines. I really hope she can convince her husband to stay with her for a while on Dead Man's Rock though. Clearly the two of them have a lot of catching up to do."

"Matt can decide that for himself," Kerrigan said calmly. "Let's just get to the main part of the city. If the nuke is there, I need to disarm it before it turns all of Deadman's Port into a radioactive crater."

* * *

**Tarsonis City, Tarsonis**

Kate walked on with her UNN journalists, escorted by Raynor's troops. She could see the hesitation on many of their faces, and she couldn't blame them. Clearly the rebel commander was a much more complicated man than she had been expecting, and the same was true for the whole overall picture. Getting news like this to the UNN network would be like uncovering a gold mine.

However, she also knew this had to be done very carefully. Despite everything that had happened, she was fully aware that Raynor still didn't fully trust her, and the former Dominion ghost, this Nova Terra, would make sure that none of them were hiding anything from him. According to Colonel Kim, Nova was apparently the strongest Dominion ghost operative, one who had never once failed in her mission before, and Lockwell knew that it wouldn't be smart to get on her bad side.

Still, that wasn't what was important here. It was Nova who had suggested a way to get the information that they had just obtained off the Confederate military satellite and announce it to the public. When the initial shock had worn off, Raynor had ordered that the transmissions were to be copied onto data discs, and hundreds of copies had already been made. Now, she was walking alongside Raynor and his troops, while an Ore Loader Truck carried the massive satellite itself, heading towards their destination.

"Nova, I still don't quite see what your plan is," Jim spoke out. "There's nothing left of Tarsonis City but rubble. Kelerchian's hideout might have been among the exceptions, but he already admitted this had only been done by Dominion construction teams to clear the rubble."

"My point exactly," the blond ghost replied. "Most of Tarsonis City is ruins, I'll give you that, but you're only seeing the city's _surface_. If you go underground, that may be a different matter."

Nova turned to one of the officers. "How much further are we from the Terra Skyscraper and UNN Building?"

"Two miles, max," came the reply. "It'll be coming into visual range any second now."

"Nova, are you sure you want to go there?" Mal asked, worried. "That's ground zero for you, you know. That was where your family had been assassinated, and where your traumatizing story began."

She lowered her head slightly. "It's something I'll have to endure, Mal. Jim had faced up to his demons, I know I can do the same."

Raynor smiled. Nova had come a long way since joining hands with his Raiders. The way she talked about endurance, it only made her and Sarah even more alike.

The smile turned into a slight frown. "Still, you haven't exactly told us as to what your plan is here. How do you plan to get these transmissions broadcasted without leaving the city?"

"You said it yourself that the flyboys had made some passes over the sector of the city that I requested," she answered. "According to them, the UNN building is still standing, despite its dilapidated state."

"It's something that surprised me too," Lockwell said. "That building was the home office to the Universal News Network during the days of the Confederacy, but it wasn't exactly considered durable. It wasn't even designed to withstand minor skirmishes, let alone a full scale assault, and certainly not a Zerg invasion."

"Well, as far as I know, most of the UNN people were evacuated to Giddings Station, where they were then taken to the orbital station of Osborne Port. Maybe because the building was left empty, the Zerg didn't find anyone to kill and therefore weren't interested in attacking the place," Mal suggested.

"It doesn't matter why the UNN Building is still standing, all that matters is that there's a good chance that the broadcasting antennas and satellites are still in working order. After all, the people who built them would have made sure that they were meant to last," Nova explained. "If so, we can upload the data and get these transmissions sent off Tarsonis. The Dominion communication satellites will pick them up, and the Dominion worlds will know about what Mengsk did."

"That won't work," Lockwell pointed out. "The UNN Building does have broadcasting booth generators in the building's basement, but those generators get their power from Tarsonis City's power stations, and because of the Zerg invasion, they've all been destroyed."

Nova smiled. "That's the reason to head to the Terra Skyscraper. For the people that know about the Old Families, it's common to hear that they didn't care about anyone but themselves, and the lives of the common people meant nothing to them. The belief was that all they cared about was their wealth, prosperity, and high living standards. There's truth to that, but this isn't true for _all_ of the Old Families. Mine was among the exceptions."

"I know you got your memory back, but I still don't get what does this have to do with going to your family's home," Jim said, confused.

"Blackouts weren't common in Tarsonis City, but every now and then they do occur when the city's power grids become too strained," the blond ghost explained. "When something like that happens, the power stations can usually take care of the problem in a couple of hours and get the power back on. However, my family also factored in the possibility that there may be times where people simply couldn't afford to wait a few hours and need the power immediately."

"And that's what you have at the place," the commander stated.

"The Terra Skyscraper has its own independent power supply source that's not part of the Tarsonis City power grid. In the event that all of the city's power stations suddenly fail, my family's building would still remain functional," Nova said. "In the years passed, when it became apparent to everyone that this was far too unlikely to happen, my family simply decided that the power source would be used for another purpose: helping those without power in the event of a power grid failure."

Kate nodded, starting to catch on. "Could that power source still be working?"

"It was kept in the skyscraper's basement, Ms. Lockwell. And my family made sure that it was built to last a couple of years without any maintenance whatsoever. Of course the Zerg weren't exactly factored in to all of this."

Raynor suddenly caught on. "If those power generators in your skyscraper building basement are still functional, then we can reroute them and divert the power to the UNN Building. Once that's done, we can then upload the data and send the transmissions."

Nova nodded, as the Terra Skyscraper came within visual range. "Exactly, Jim. This whole city has been completely depowered for years. No one would expect the power could suddenly come back on, even if it's only for a small section of the city and even if it's only for a few minutes."

Jim turned his head to what was left of the skyscraper, his face grim. Unlike the UNN Building, the Terra Skyscraper did not survive the Zerg onslaught. The building had collapsed onto itself. One of the finest buildings in Tarsonis City was now nothing but a pile of rubble and ruin.

He nodded to his troops. "Start digging through the mess immediately, people. If the skyscraper's basement survived the Zerg, there must still be a way inside."

"We'll find it, commander," an officer replied. "But what about all our other troops left at the dilapidated place? The Zerg are probably hitting their lines as we speak, sir. You know there's no way they can hold them off forever."

"Then we'll set up defensive positions around the UNN building. If the Zerg get that far, we have to hold them off there, at least until the transmissions are uploaded," Raynor replied. "This is our best and most likely our only chance to expose Mengsk for what he really is, and I intend to make it count. For now, keep looking for a way inside. Whatever sort of state the power source is in right now, I have to know."


End file.
